Haqiqat-e-Jamhuriat
Since the topic of Shariah vs jamhuriat has taken its toll on the media and has been a hot topic for discussion for nearly a month, relatively an age-old topic, I thought I would share my views. This document is open to criticism and queries in case if anyone reads it.
Democracy:
Democracy, in its true essence was first defined by Abraham Lincoln like so:
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”
It is a Greek word which literally means “Rule of the People” where ‘Demo’ means people and ‘kratos’ means ‘government’ but some people compare it with ‘majority of the people’ when in truth it is the ‘support of the majority’ which is why the Greek Philosopher Herodotus says:
“Democracy is such a government in which the head of state holds influence over the society.”
HISTORY OF DEMOCRACY
The first signs of democracy showed light 600 years before the beginning of the Christian calendar and just before the birth of The Buddha in the democratic states known as Janapadas. The first state was known as “Washani” which is popular today as “Bahar”. Similarly, during the reign of Alexander the Great, there existed small democratic states known as Sabaracae or Sabastai, according to the Greek Philosophers, in the present areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Similarly, history shows us the example of ‘The Senate’ and the ‘Roman Empire’ in 49 BC. Some other examples are:
1. Tacitus
2. Frankish Custom of March Field
3. All things parliament of Iceland
4. Tutha system of Ireland
5. Even some tribes of the Quresh
DEMOCRACY IN ISLAM:
In Islam, besides Allah, no one has the right to make laws. Allah is our Creater, our Lord and he knows well that what is good and what is bad for us. It is the responsibility of hum...
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...nately, we must not call today’s Muslims true Muslims. That is because Islam constitutes rules, discipline, principles and actions based on the rules and principles. Today these have been lost. Islam survives only in lectures and classrooms, for we are not living by Islam today. It has become a name without a body”
12) Personal Opinion:
The idea of democracy in Islam has confused a lot of people. Even I, myself do not know whether to believe in it as there are many Islamic scholars calling Islamic principles and democracy as two sides of the same coin. My opinion is that democracy cannot work here in the third-world countries because majority of the people are un-educated and are used to the tribal system of their villages and cannot analyze the righteousness of a person. They will continue to choose their leaders according to tradition as can be seen in Pakistan.
By the fourth century B.C.E. there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece was not a single political entity it was a collection of about 1500 separate poleis or cities scattered around the Mediterranean and black sea shores. The cities that were not democracies were either oligarchies or monarchies (often times called tyrannies). Of the democracies, the oldest, the most stable, the most long-lived, and the most radical, was Athens.
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
...nstead the state consists of rulers who behave like subjects and subjects who behave like rulers. The people begin to desire a strong leader, who will make the difficult decisions for them and bear the consequences: the Democracy has become a Tyranny.
...should either live the life of those that they rule, as an equal, or as a superior allow the necessary input of those whom they rule, to decide the best course of action, as is done in a democracy.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
Democracy is the structure of government still used today in many countries.The definition of democracy is a system of government where people who rule directly are freely elected representatives.In addition, democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia. Demo meaning people and kratia meaning power of rule. For instance, here is an example, Great Britain has a democratic government since elected officials and laws are voted on by the people and also the representatives they elect. Therefore Athens exemplifies a democratic government. “Athenians would meet and vote on a simple question …. is anyone becoming a threat to democracy? If a simple majority voted yes,then they dispersed and reassembled two months later,
In 510 B.C the first known democratic constitution was created by Solon, lawgiver of Athens. Almost a century later, Solon’s reforms were modified by Cleisthenes. The laws in a particular city or state today should reflect on equality and human rights; but until the implementation of Solon’s and Cleisthenes’ reforms, the aristocratic families of Athens ruled over the poorer citizens.
Islam the complete ‘surrender to Allah’ is a living religious tradition with the principal belief in one God – Allah. Islam has remained the same in its principle beliefs of Allah, His Angels, His Prophets, His Books, The Last Day and his complete authority over destiny and has also changed over time to ensure that Islam remains a living religious tradition. Over its history Islam has had many significant people including Al Ghazali and Aisha Bint Abu Bakr who have ensured that Islam remains living in the hearts and minds of its adherents. In addition to significant individuals participation in the Five Pillars e.g. the Hajj ensure that Islam will continue to be the living religious tradition that it is.
The word democracy comes from 2 different words demo means ‘people’ and Katia means ‘rule’. Athens was the first town of the Attica. As well as being the commercial center, the Agora was the administrative and legal center, where the Athenian democracy was put into practice.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
Ahmed, A. S. (1999). Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World. New York: I. B. Tauris.
Democracy is “...the word that resonates in people’s minds and springs from their lips as they struggle for freedom and a better way of life...” (Schmitter and Karl, 1991:75). However, the word democracy has many different means depending on the country and context it is used in. “Every country has is own culture and comes by its political system through its own history” (Greenberg, 2007:101, cited in Li, 2008:4). Li, (2008) states that because of China’s political structure the usual road to democracy may be difficult for it to achieve. The western idea ...
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...
It goes without saying that people are not entitled to take the law in their own hands, for it’s the responsibility of the Muslim State and its concerned bodies to maintain peace, security, etc., and to prevent chaos and disorder from creeping into the Muslim society.”
“Are political Islam and democracy compatible?” This question has been troubling both Muslims and non-Muslims living in East and West for a long time now. Contemporary Islamic political thought has become deeply influenced by attempts at reconciling Islam and democracy. Muslim thinkers who deal with political debates cannot disregard the significance of the democratic system, as it is the prevailing theme of modern western political thought. Hence, it is necessary for any alternative political system, whether it is religious or secular, to explore its position with regards to democratic government. In fact, a large literature and media publications have developed over the last century on this heated discourse of democracy versus Islam. While many argue that Islam has all the ingredients of modern state and democratic society, many other reject the phenomena “modernism” and “democracy” as a whole because of their “foreign nature”—alien to “Islamic values”. For Islamists and modernists, the motivation for such effort to either embrace or reject democracy often is to remove suspicion about the nature and goals of Islamic movements and Islamic revivalism or resurgence. But before diving into this discourse, one needs to understand the definition and origins of “democracy.” Although purely a Western ideology in its origin, there is no consensus on the definition of “democracy” as a political system. The Oxford English Dictionary describes democracy as: “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” (“democracy, n.”). In my paper, I will examine whether or not democracy and Sunni political Islam are compatible through the eyes of three revolutionary Sun...