Islam compatible with democracy?

Submitted by Tom Dykhuizen (United States), Jul 19, 2002 at 01:08

Pipes comments: "there is nothing in Islam that necessarily contradicts democracy..."

I am completely baffled by Pipes' statement. Doesn't Islam specifically prescribe what it considers to be a proper government? And isn't this government radically at odds with "democracy" (which I take in this context to mean "equally respectful of the individual rights of its citizens")?

The self-contradiction seems self evident to me. By the end of the article, Pipes concedes as much himself, when asked "What would it take to see a democratic citizenry come into existence in the Muslim world?". He answers (in part): "Only when Muslims on their own turn toward secularism...will the Muslim world make..advances..."

So... Islam is compatible with democracy, as long as Moslems don't consistently practice Islam?

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