Democracy and Religion in Developing Countries - Essay Example

_________ Grade ___________ d: 2008-12-14 Democracy and Religion in developing countries In this decade, where religious resurgence and democratization are considered to be the most important developments, there is a concern whether democracy works in Islamic countries. This concern is due to many reasons among which common ones are those that indicates that movements of religious revival sometimes follow or coincide with the formation of democratic political systems. In the Muslim world, particularly developing countries issues concerning political democracy are raised with special force because of the strength of the Islamic resurgence and the intensity of the demands in recent years which demand better political processes. Before examining the application of democracy in Islamic countries, there is a need to analyze the significance of Islam in politics. Islamic politics according to modern Islamic movements and what history tells us is a combination of religion and politics for the reason that medieval Islamic civilization of the Umayyads and the Abbasids followed non-state structures based on the grounds of religious faith and action (Esposito & Voll: 4). This indicates that the true implication of democracy in the Muslim era was followed by the belief that the most pious person among the society was supposed to be selected by civilians as well as by his followers. The current political culture of liberal secular societies never concern about God and never weighs God's approval or disapproval of their policies or behaviour. For this reason one can see that even religious political struggles and negotiations differ a lot when compared to those of the past. This clearly indicates that today's liberal democratic governments pursue people's happiness to the exclusion of God's approval (Sadri & Sadri: 122). Democratic Political Systems The concept of democracy followed in Islamic countries encompasses Islamic activist movements that challenge government while supporting others. What usually happens in this era is that in the political interests of Islamic revivalist groups, revolutionary opposition takes place which leads them either to ruling governments, or such movements may participate in the ruling political system as opposition movements. Many times it is seen that such religious movements are based as they are crucial part of the government or are themselves the ruling force in the political system. Such a perspective of democracy is based on a broad spectrum that gives us an overview of different situations within which Islamic democratization exists. Therefore such situations are: (1) revolutionary democracy to the ruling political government (2) legal or cooperating democracy that works within the boundaries of political system (3) active participation as a democratic government alliance which works with other political forces and (4) the system that controls and leads the existing political system. The above situations as practiced by most of the Islamic countries shapes the nature of emerging democratic ideals in the Islamic world as well as the developing and influenced new political orders in Islam. Democracy in the Middle East As far as Islamic law and order is concerned, it is severely implemented in the region except for the positive peace in the Middle East. Countries like Iraq, Iran and Israel are pervaded with armed conflicts in various types and forms like regional conflicts, resource wars, separatist and nationalist conflicts and irredentist conflicts. However some countries are influenced by other ethnic, religious and tribal struggles to the extent where their democratic power is heavily influenced under revolutionary and fundamentalist struggles. The peoples and governments throughout the Middle East are thus confronting pro-democracy anti-colonial struggles. Middle Eastern democratic trend follows violent conflicts and does not fulfil the criteria of positive peace in the region which is the utmost ground for building a democratic government regime. Example is that of the daily violence between Israelis and Palestinians (Saikal & Schnabel: 26). In the recent years, democracy in the Arab world has been replaced by the concept of 'liberalization'. However except for a few exceptions, the Arab world has made relatively little progress toward political liberalization. This is evident from the fact that many of the experiments in democratization that were launched to examine the role and practice of democracy in Muslim countries have been cut back substantially or even abandoned. Still the importance of democracy has been repeatedly emphasized by Arab as well as Western world. A concern for political liberalization, and ultimately for democracy, does not reflect an uncritical infatuation with globalization or a belief that Western political forms are inherently superior (Saikal & Schnabel: 104). One concern for liberal democratic governance is that whether Muslim world imitates it from the West. However, there is no reason for the Muslim democratic governance to imitate the desire from the West. Nor does it necessarily reflect the belief to be democratic while contributing to regional peace and integration, even though these may be desirable by-products. No doubt there is a strong awareness among the common people of the Muslim world to succumb to mechanisms by which ordinary men and women can hold their governments accountable, therefore limit mismanagement and corruption and to push for policies that address the needs of all citizens, rather than simply deliver resources to the ruling elite. Despite the level of such consciousness, it is also true that the extent to which Arab world should comply with democracy, is not achieved. This is also evident from various themes in a wide range of settings, for example, in a conference held in Amman in 1999, it was decided by various intellectuals from 13 Arab countries to focus attention on the challenges of globalization as well as preservation of Arab specificity. While analyzing democratic political power, many surveys have witnessed that Arabs uphold their opinion and belief that the US-Iraq war only result in less democracy, less peace and more terrorism in the Middle East. This way Arabs think that West intentions in Iraq escorts to fewer prospects for a peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict with an aim of weakening the Middle East, the ultimate purpose is to lesson the extent of democratic system (Barron: 28). While keeping an eye upon the issues concerning democratic governance, and despite the pessimism of most present-day assessments, we can only hope for renewed political liberalization in the years ahead, which cannot be achieved without at least attaining gradual democracy. On the one hand, there are new rulers practicing their political powers in Muslim countries like Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria while on the other, there are various domestic and international forces keeping issues of democratic governance on the agenda while exerting pressure for minimum democratization. Democracy in countries like Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Qatar, according to many scholars is uneven and too pessimistic to consider for a promising democratic future. Even in the Palestinian Authority, search and struggle for democratic governance has long been in setback. Still the Arab world watches other regions while standing apart from others with respect to the authoritarian character of its governments and the limited influence of institutions and individuals working for democracy (Tessler: 229). Democracy in Asian Muslim World Malaysia: In contrast to the Middle East, Asian Muslim countries like Malaysia enjoys democracy at least to the extent where after witnessing some political systems refusal to allow Islamic political parties, some Islamic movements have allowed to be engaged in violent opposition. The Malaysian system follows gradual democracy which involves a dominant ruling party that accepts the existence and political participation of Islamic groups and Islamic organizations that function as nonviolent opposition. However today Malaysia's democracy is witnessed as its political ability to function within the system which is also encouraged by many charismatic Islamic activists. Being influenced by multicultural society, Islam is a core element of Malay identity and culture, providing an integrated perception of religion and traditional values. It would not be wrong to say that Islam and Malay identity are intertwined i.e., to be Malay is to be Muslim. That clearly indicates that Malaysian Islam has had both strong international and regional Islamic ties. While comparing democracy of Southeast Asia with that of the Middle East, it is obvious that Southeast Asia has been the most influential source for the development of Islamic thought and institutions including what it takes to be a democratic system. Today Malaysia enjoys greater political concentration of power with greater authoritarianism and just like many of its Pacific rim colleagues in ASEAN, Malaysia possesses a strong leadership and economy followed by democratic liberalism. Pakistan: Created in the name of 'Islamic Republic', unfortunately is always been under the influence of military, non-military and secular political governments. Many scholars suggest that Pakistan has tried its best to compete with democratic standards; however it is for sure that since 1947, it has been through various movements with competing agendas and interests that have only attained a label of Islam. It seems Islam has been adopted by force in order to prove the governmental interests and legitimacy so as to support a variety of political, economic, and class interests. Islam has been implemented in Pakistan to the extent where political parties have searched diverse ways to legitimate both government and opposition movements and to rationalize a range of options from democracy to political and religious authoritarianism. Pakistan has struggled throughout independence to search for the true meaning of its Islamic identity. However, the role of Islam in Pakistan reveals the diverse and often contending usages of Islam, devoid of democracy with a potential to divide rather than unite. It would be better to say that Islam was never accepted by this country; as a matter of fact 'Islam' was only an issue for attaining independence. In this era where many Muslim countries are concerned about political Islam and its compatibility with democratization, Pakistan offers an extensive test case of the role of religion in government-engineered state building, as well as of the ability of Islamic organizations to participate within the political system (Esposito & Voll: 102). Followed by a multiparty political system, Pakistan is ruled by several Islamic organizations that offer an instructive example of how Islam and democracy have often existed more in form than substance, subordinated to political and social realities rather than acting as controlling or guiding forces. Democracy in North Africa North African Muslim countries priority has always been towards increasing democratization as long as possible. Particularly countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya has considered democratic government since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. However after experiencing failure of one-party-driven government, command economy model of socialist development long advocated by the Soviets adopted their ally's reforms and many other nations in the third world. The Western pluralist, democratic, and capitalist model of development has in effect become the only system of governance that is perceived by most Muslim developing countries as being both viable in practice and attractive in terms of its societal implications (Saikal & Schnabel: 183). The political development of Algeria has always been dependant upon Islamic principles and this is not due to the faith of the vast majority of Algerians that made them united but, it is the rules that they had followed ever since it came into being. Algeria's ruling and cultural leaders pursued a more Western secular orientation where pursuit of the French curriculum was a key to advance education. Although at that time when Western language education was necessary for upward mobility, the government also fostered an Arabization program for education, the judiciary, and the administrative systems. Arabic, with its deep religious and nationalist roots, continued to be a source of contention between the graduates of the French and Arabic curricula. Algerian rulers in a sense remained diplomat for they like many Muslim states, embarked on an essentially Western, secular path of development, did employ Islam selectively, identifying it with Algeria's socialist national ideology to strengthen their own legitimacy. The state was also bureaucrat who attempted to control official Islam through different means i.e., government supervision of educational institutions, the ulama, and separating mosques. Islamic teachings and attitudes in Algeria, as elsewhere, toward democracy must be seen within the broader context of their reactions to the West and to dependence on Western institutions. Many Muslim leaders in the early twentieth century denounced nationalism, democracy, and pluralism, judging them less in and for themselves and more as foreign, un-Islamic concepts introduced by the West to further divide and weaken Muslims and thus perpetuate a process of political and cultural dependency. Even many preachers in Algeria's mosques declared democracy as an alien ideology, equating it with secularism or 'godless unbelief'. Few countries have experienced as sustained an attempt by a colonial power to totally transform and dominate political and cultural life and Algeria is among one of them. Algeria survived through French hegemonic designs and waged one of the longest and bloodiest modern wars of independence in the Islamic world but still Islam proved to be a unifying populist force in Algeria's resistance and independence movement. However, like other Muslim nations, Algeria witnessed a complex profile in the name of democracy to which both the popular will and religion were subordinated to authoritarian rule, to a one-party state based upon a triple alliance, the government, and the military. On the basis of the above analysis of 'democratic regimes' throughout Muslim world, this era have witnessed the impact and interaction of the forces of resurgent Islam and democratization. When it comes to bringing a true democratic power, issues of religious and cultural identity, authenticity, and legitimacy starts intertwine with those of political participation, empowerment and civil society. Crises remains with the Muslim world indicate that the post-independence drift along a more Western, secular path of development has been challenged if not rejected. Culprits are both, the government and political and social movements to reshape religious symbols and vocabulary, this way they use and abuse the manipulated religion in politics and society. Despite so many changes in the political powers, Muslim experiences, however, have not occurred in isolation and today what we are witnessing is a global movement of religious and communal resurgence in the name of democracy. On the contrary, the global tendency toward desecularization has challenged the presuppositions of modernization and secularization of societies which has often been articulated as inevitable evolutionary principles of development. Works Cited Barron Owen, "A New Approach: Engaging the Muslim World through Public Diplomacy" In: Harvard International Review. 2007. 28: 4. Esposito L. John & Voll O. John, Islam and Democracy: Oxford University Press: New York. 1996. Sadri Mahmoud & Sadri Ahmad, Reason, Freedom, & Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush: Oxford University Press: Oxford. 2000. Saikal Amin & Schnabel Albrecht, Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges: United Nations University Press: New York. 2003. Tessler Mark, "Do Islamic Orientations Influence Attitudes toward Democracy in the Arab World Evidence from Egypt, Jordan Morocco, and Algeria" In: International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2002: 229. Read More