Islam "incompatible" with democracy
One of the most persistent charges against Islam over the past few years is that the religion, and therefore the Muslim faithful, are fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Very few public figures have declared this in a public forum, but there has always been a significant body of opinion which subscribes to the view. The view is fairly regularly on internet fora, including boards and, on anecdotal evidence, is quite prevalent elsewhere in society. Some of my friends, who could otherwise be described as liberals, are quite happy to deem people power irreconcilable with a fifth of the world's population, purely on the basis of the particular religious book they hold dear.
When one points out that Turkey is one of the most long established secular democracy on the planet, or that Indonesia seems to be making a good go of democracy, these people find flaws and faults in both societies to tear down their democracies. As if all Christian democracies are flawless. The fact that Muslims have risked life and limb in Iraq and Afganistan to exercise a right which c.40% of Irish people scorn every election, is just ignored. The fact that Muslim populations don't actually have a say in the dictatorships which rule over them is also ignored. Thus the rule of autocrats such as Gaddaffi in Libya or el-Assad in Syria are evidence that Muslims disdain democracy, whereas dictatorships in Christian and other countries are brutal violations of the peoples' will.
In the past few weeks however, millions of Muslims (and Christians also) in North Africa, and in the Middle East, have come onto the streets, faced down baton wielding thugs, tear gas, and live ammunition to demand their voices be heard. In Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and now Libya, people have braved the threats of torture and death to demand their democratic perogative- rights which a proportion of Western society snidely argues are incompatible with the beliefs of the very people dying in their pursuit.
Hopefully, with the brave and often mortal determination of ordinary Muslims to claim democratic rights now so evident, those who have lazily, and sometimes xenophobically, contended that Muslims, and their religion, is irreconcilable with democracy will have been put in their place. To state that Muslims cannot believe in Allah and democracy, whilst Muslims lie dead in the streets for wishing to do so, would not only be ignorant, but shockingly callous to boot.
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