Ottawa Citizen
May 7, 2004 Friday Final Edition
Democracy is no cure-all, and can’t be imposed by force
by: Gamal Solaiman
In a recent column (“East is East,” April 25), David Warren asked for
a “well-informed imam” to buttress several points he has raised in
his premise that democracy and Islam are at loggerheads. I shall try
to do the best I can.
While I do not possess the broad and in-depth knowledge that Mr.
Warren has attained and expresses well in his columns of late about
Islam, I can only explain my narrow parochial view gained through
researching my doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence at the University
of Exeter in England.
The Islamic court system is what Mr. Warren thinks is a stumbling
block to democracy in the Muslim World. Shariah has its roots in the
Covenant Patriarch Abraham made with God. Even the word Canon is
derived from the Arabic word for law, Qanun.
Shariah, the law, is inherent principles of Islam and should not be
confused with Fiqh, the Islamic jurisprudence or the humane
application of Shariah justice — no eye for an eye in Islam. If a
starving person steals to quell pangs of hunger, he or she cannot be
punished under Fiqh.
If Shariah were that bad, why then in some Muslim countries do
minority Christians opt for it as being fairer than a civil code
available to them exclusively for relief and redress?
Contrarily, the premise that Muslims cannot accept non-Muslim civil
authority is also erroneous. There are more than 60 million Muslims
in China, and 150 million in India where some hold high positions in
politics, government and the military, unlike in the democratic West.
In Egypt, 10 seats are reserved for the Christian minority regardless
of their electoral successes, and they always hold two cabinet posts.
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary
general, is a Christian and was Egypt’s Foreign Minister. The
president of Lebanon is a Christian. Much of the Palestinian
leadership is Christian.
Pakistan has 10 seats out of 217 for its minorities. Iran has five
seats out of 275 for Jews, Armenian Christians and Assyrian
Christians. The Patriarch of the Orthodox Rite, the Pope of the
Eastern Church, has for centuries resided in Istanbul (the Second
Rome). Tariq Aziz, the former lieutenant of Saddam Hussein, is a
Christian. What about the Western democratic deficit for Muslims?
The example of Turkey is well taken by Mr. Warren. Even though the
country is proclaimed as a secular republic, Turks claim themselves
to be 99 per cent Muslim and as democrats they do not consume pork,
either.
It is social inertia that is not much understood in the West. The
U.S. could not eliminate alcoholism through Prohibition in the 1930s.
Similarly, Muslims will not abjure their religious principles
regardless of the promise democracy may enticingly offer to erode
their values. Turks never abandoned Islam: today they are being ruled
by an Islamist party!
Although Christianity and Islam share a community of beliefs — One
God, Angels, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, the
Prophets, one life, life hereafter, Resurrection, the Day of
Judgment, Heaven and Hell — the rudimentary difference is that,
while Jesus is central to Christianity, the word of the Quran is
paramount to Muslims.
Furthermore, Islam does not deny the Virgin Birth, Jesus being the
Messiah of God (Messih’Allah) or his Second Coming. However, Islam
does not share the changing dynamism of Christianity (Santa Claus and
his entourage would be considered Bida, or innovation, in Islam and
forbidden, or Haram. So is Shirk, ascribing partnership to God;
Muslims do not pray to Prophet Mohammad, but pray for his salvation.)
Granted that the West, which Mr. Warren believes has synonymy with
Christianity, has unwittingly found itself at the end of the Cold War
and the demise of Communism with Islam as a counterforce and
adversary.
Let me step backwards into time to the Dark Ages when Tariq Ben Ziad
landed at Jebel Tariq (now Gibraltar) in 711 AD and during the Muslim
era until 1492 AD when democracy flourished in Spain such that the
Jews had their Golden Age under the Islamic rule. Muslims introduced
astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine and philosophy
of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Al-Khwarizmi
(Algorithm) to Europe to generate such venerable scholars as St.
Aquinas and Descartes.
Long before democratic institutions were in vogue in Europe, the
Moghals in India had the Grand Trunk Road, gold coinage, a justice
system and revenue collection to enable them to build such
architectural wonders as the Taj Mahal and sundry mosques. This was
prior to the British occupation and colonization of that subcontinent
with a superimposition of a class system atop the caste one which was
prevalent there.
The West’s abrogation of Christian values such as the rescission of
the Lord’s Prayer in 1994 from the Canadian House of Commons, recited
since 1877, did not give our Parliament any democratic surplus. In
fact, Christianity has been replaced by utilitarianism’s relativistic
ethics, i.e. if God is needed, God exists; otherwise He is dismissed.
Such an attitude does not exist in Islamic countries as His
omnipresence is neither negotiable nor negated. God is an integral
part of Islamic life, not something utilized and then shelved for
later reference.
If democracy were such a cure-all, then the West would not have to
use extreme force to destroy any country’s insignia, infrastructure
and institutions to deliver such a panacea. The recent deletion of
“Allaho Akbar,” “Deo Maximo” or “God is Great” from the flag of Iraq
probably has the same significance as the Trinity — “Father, Son and
Holy Ghost” — to Christians.
And the Real World that Mr. Warren mentions raises some interesting
prospects: If 50-per-cent-plus-one of Canadians were against same-sex
marriage, would that proposition become invalidated? If these are the
remedies available through democracy, then I would rather take refuge
under “Virtual Reality” so deeply entrenched in our society.
The democratic prescription may become a bitter pill to swallow. If
it would kill rather than cure — the operation was successful, but
the patient died — then perhaps democracy is not meant for the
Muslims and they may have to live with this deficiency as they do
without alcohol.
Remember what Sir Winston Churchill said in the Mother of
Parliaments: “Indeed, it has been said that Democracy is the worst
form of Government except for all those other forms that have been
tried from time to time.”
But what about the other brand, Communism, under which democracy was
sold for decades and still prevails in some parts of the world? Lest
we forget the Democratic Republics of East Germany, North Korea,
North Vietnam, etc. What an epitaph for democracy!
Gamal Solaiman is the Imam of the Ottawa Mosque.