[rahweb] Fwd: [Sahibasisters] Fwd: Book Review: Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
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Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 10:12:26 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Sahibasisters] Fwd: Book Review: Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
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From: Yogi Sikand <ysikand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Book Review: Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
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Book Review
Name of the Book: Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
Author: Khaled Abou El Fadl
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton
Year: 2004
Pages: 139
ISBN: 0-691-11938-4
Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand
The relationship between Islam and democracy is a much discussed and hotly
debated issue. Given the diverse understandings of democracy and Islam, the
answer to the question of the compatibility between the two is not a
straightforward one. As Khaled Abou El Fadl makes clear in this absorbing book,
Islam and democracy are not singularly defined concepts, and the quest for
reconciling the two must necessarily entail exploring the plurality of
understandings of both. Anti- and well as pro-democratic versions of Islam
exist and compete with each other, he suggests, and the task before the
concerned believer today is to promote socially engaged visions of the faith
that are grounded in the quest for human rights and social justice.
The first section of the book consists of a lengthy essay by El Fadl, where he
seeks to develop a democratic understanding of Islam. At the very outset he
warns that he does not argue that democracy is an invention of Islam or of
Muslims, as some Muslim writers indeed do. Rather, his claim is more modest, in
that he contends that Islam can indeed be interpreted in such a manner as to
support democracy. In the process of developing such an understanding of Islam,
he seeks to counter radical Islamists as well as hardened Islamophobes, both of
whom, using the argument of God as sovereign law-giver in Islam, insist that
Islam is antithetical to democracy. El Fadl argues that while God is indeed the
sovereign master of the universe, He has provided humans with a limited,
derived sovereignty of their own in their capacity of His deputies or khulafa.
Further, Islam envisages a limited form of government, the rule of law,
consensual decision making through shura?, toleration of disse
nt and difference and accountability of rulers to the people. It also stresses
the centrality of basic ethical values, particularly social justice (?adl) and
respect for the rights of the ?creatures of God? (huquq al-?ibad), which, in
turn, resonate with many contemporary notions of human rights. Islam, El Fadl
points out, allows for the use of human reason to devise, through the process
of ijtihad, laws in areas on which the shari?ah is silent. He also highlights
the importance of notions of maslaha or the ?public good? and ahkam al-shari?ah
or ?expediency laws? in developing new understandings of fiqh to suit changing
social contexts. This is particularly crucial for him, as for many other
modernist Muslim writers, with regard to the legal status of women and
non-Muslims, whom he insists should be treated as the absolute equals of Muslim
males.
The crux of El Fadl?s essay, then, is to draw the parallels between democracy
and Islam as he defines it. He is of course aware that his own interpretation
of Islam is not normative and that it can be contested, being only one among
many. He admits that all interpretations of Islam are human constructs, and
none can be held to represent the absolute divine will, which is actually
beyond human comprehension. This is why he is opposed to the notion of an
?Islamic state? charged with the task of imposing the shari?ah. As he explains,
to do so would be to confuse a limited, human understanding of Islam with God?s
will, which, in turn, is tantamount to the grave sin of putting up partners
with God (shirk). Furthermore, he argues that a state that sees itself as the
deputy of the divine will would soon, and inevitably, degenerate into an
instrument of authoritarianism and oppression.
The second section of the book consists of short responses to El Fadl?s essay
by several scholars. John Esposito points out how El Fadl?s essay indicates
the complex and multiple ways in which a religious text, in this case the
Qur?an, can be interpreted in different contexts in order to suit different
social and political agendas. Muqtedar Khan remarks that the pact of Medina
that the Prophet entered into with the Jews and the pagans of the town could be
used as an Islamic model of democracy and pluralism, in that all the parties to
the treaty were guaranteed equal rights and had to shoulder equal
responsibilities. He also adds to El Fadl?s point about the historicity of fiqh
or Islamic jurisprudence by suggesting that Islam should be seen as a font of
values and moral principles, as opposed to a rigid system of readymade
solutions to all problems. He argues that this distinction is essential in
order to develop a more democratic and relevant understanding of the faith.
Saba Mahmood also criticises some of El Fadl?s proposals, but from a different
angle. She questions whether liberalism is the only answer for Muslims, or for
anyone else for that matter, and argues that the assumption that liberalism is
normative and problem-free is itself gravely problematic. She critiques El Fadl
for uncritically embracing liberalism without noting its contradictions and
limitations, and for ignoring the distinctly illiberal and violent historical
trajectory of Western liberalism. She contends that El Fadl?s concern with
civic rights glosses over the perhaps more important question of economic
rights, and that in focussing on the rights of individuals he overlooks the
importance of the rights of communities. She claims that El Fadl?s perspective
on rights stems from his assumption of the normativity of the Western liberal
tradition, in which economic and community rights receive little attention.
Mahmood also faults El Fadl for ignoring the crass and large
scale violation of human rights by self-proclaimed liberal states such as the
United States, and for their sponsoring of distinctly illiberal regimes in
countries like as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in order to promote their own
interests.
Echoing Mahmood, Kevin Reinhart remarks that El Fadl?s assumption of liberalism
being normative for all peoples is greatly problematic. It ignores the vital
question of what Western liberalism could learn from other cultures and
approaches to the world, including the Islamic. He also notes that the
reception of democracy in the Muslim world critically depends on Western
policies. Quite naturally, Western military intervention in the Muslim world
can only make the cause of democracy in that region even more hopeless. William
Quandt echoes a similar view, arguing that the diversity of understandings of
Islam clearly suggests that Islam per se cannot be said to be the cause of the
distinct absence of democracy in many Muslim countries. Rather, he says, the
problem must be located principally in the existence of monarchical or
dictatorial regimes in these countries, nearly all of whom are supported by
dominant Western powers. In other words, he seems to suggest, the cause of demo
cracy in the Muslim world depends on both a more democratic vision of Islam as
well as structural political changes in the direction of genuine democracy, a
prospect that neither ruling regimes in that part of the world, nor their
Western allies, are likely to enthusiastically welcome.
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