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Coming from an imam, it can only confirm that democracy and islam are totally incompatible.

In the West, imams often say things like 'Muslims should obey the law of the country they live in'. So if a Muslim finds him/herself living in a democracy, they should obey the laws of the democracy. So democracy seems to be something to be tolerated, but I've never heard of an imam saying that democracy is a good thing.

never heard of him.

Here is more qualified Imam

Hamza Yusuf:

The Muslim society has lost the ability of strategic thinking, which Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) exemplified by compromising on several points with the enemy when he signed the Treaty of Hudaibia, said leading American Muslim, Shaikh Hamza Yousuf, at a lecture on Monday.

Elaborating his point, Shaikh Hamza Yousuf said, “There are times when you have to live like a sheep in order to live in the future like a lion.”

Hamza Yusuf seems to be saying that some limited form of democracy is compatible with Islam. He's careful to qualify it that he's talking about limited democracy and that other forms of government are good and Islamic. The implication is that democracy is not the best system of government.

He implies criticisms of autocratic regimes should be regarded as a form of racism. That doesn't make sense to me. If someone criticises a dictator, that's different to criticising a race of people.

Also he also says that certain forms of democracy are clearly bad without elaborating. Presumably he doesn't want to contradict his fellow imams who say that a democratically elected government has no right to over rule sharia.

Nucleus,

You seem to be afraid to comment on the subject so you're just posting links. You don't want to agree with Herve (although many Muslims would agree with his last assertion that democracy is un-Islamic.) You also don't want to disagree with him because that might be blaspheme and/or sedition.

Under UAE law, locals can go to prison for advocating democratic reform.

Why I've say the samething what is said in the video? Double post?

You should figured from the videos I don't consider democracy unislamic.

First of all, it's very difficult to define democracy. We see democracy mainly as how it is implemented in the West, but I think if the ancient Greek had to say something, they would say Western democracies are not true democracies. Everybody understands under democracy some kind of civilian influence on decision making and laws. I am not sure whether Islam and democracy are not comptable, I think there a case to make democracy can be compatable, in the sense that it allowes for civilian influence. That said, would a Muslim democracy allow for a non-Muslim leader? Can you have a 'Muslim' democracy, without full implementation of sharia? Or doesn a Muslim democracy by definition mean law making based on sharia? If sharia is the main bases of law making, how can it be a full democracy?

blueshift wrote:(although many Muslims would agree with his last assertion that democracy is un-Islamic.)

LOL. Democracy means nothing...It can be anything and everthing.. You can even make it a religious rule of law.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_democracy

Democracy is Coercive... "Mencken was expressing his characteristic "distaste for democracy," which he called the "dominant religious system of the world" and "incomparably idiotic." http://mises.org/daily/383

And if you think that Western civilisation's value system is far superior to that of Islam's. You are making a big mistake, big, big mistake.....

Islam is depicted as a system with values incompatible with modern life and human needs in the 21st century and beyond. But when we examine the values of materialistic philosophy upon which the current popular wisdom is based and the fundamental principles of Islam according to the Qur'an — we notice rather a different picture.

http://www.muslimway.org/content/view/26444/34/1/5/



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--- Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:49 pm ---

I came across another video of Noah Feldman. He certainly is very good at delivering, an affluent speaker..
He's a constitutional law prof. at Harvard, has Ph.D in islamic studies and apparently praises sharia as "bold and noble" ,he comes from an orthodox jewish background by the way

He says:

Many Muslims in Saudi Arabia believe that the core values of Islam, namely acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty and basic human equality before God, are themselves compatible with liberty, equality and free political choice.”

This is his TED talk filmed at 2003 but released out at 2008? I wonder why? He claims that Politics(Democracy) and Religion are technologies...