Page 1 of
2 BOOK
REVIEW Muslim democracy: An
oxymoron? Democracy in Muslim
Societies by Zoya Hasan (ed)
Reviewed by Sreeram Chaulia
Whether Islam and democracy can coexist
within the same socio-political space has long
been debated by lay persons and academics. On one
hand are defensive claims insisting that Islam has
all the value ingredients compatible with
democracy and that the religion has been "twisted"
out of context by a small minority of hotheads.
This side believes that there is nothing about Islam
per
se that inhibits democracy from flowering and
blames narrow cultural frames for misstating the
problem.
On the other hand are studies
showing that, empirically, Muslim countries have
fared very poorly in terms of democratic form or
substance compared to non-Muslim countries. This
side argues that there is something in the
authority patterns of Muslim values that subverts
genuine democracy.
Since 70% of the world's
Muslims live in non-Arab Asian countries, evidence
in this debate has to include them and not just
the homogeneous block of Arab states. Zoya Hasan's
new edited
volume containing six case
studies and posits that one must grasp the
varieties and multiple paths taken by Muslim
politics in the quest for democracy.
The
editor's introductory essay asserts that a "shift
from Arab to Asian societies" as units of analysis
is an "intellectual move" challenging
stereotypical discussions of Muslim politics after
the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the
United States. The message is that the political
language of Islam is not uniform and one has to
delve into the national contexts and peculiarities
of each case. Hasan contends that Islam is in
constant interaction with its socio-economic and
political environment, especially its colonial
heritage, state-society relations, international
setting and stage of development. Islam cannot be
the only factor of interest in assessing chances
of democracy because there are other variables
that have a bearing on the issue.
Amena
Mohsin and Meghna Guhathakurta's chapter on
Bangladesh reflects on why the country has been
steadily Islamizing in violation of its original
secular democratic aspirations. The
military-bureaucratic elites inherited notions of
a divine right to rule from the Pakistan era and,
lacking legitimacy, used Islam to shore up their
rule. Under General Zia ur-Rahman, the state
identified itself with Islam and persecuted
Hindus, Ahmadiyas or Qadiyanis. It engineered
demographic shifts to dilute the ethnic
composition of minorities. Society was turned
toward a "mosque-centric" direction and politics
became "street-centric" during General H M
Ershad's dictatorship. Despite 15 years of formal
democracy, the army remains unaccountable to the
public, who cannot freely criticize it due to
constitutional forbidding.
Even the
liberal Awami League party uses religion in all
its activities and does not clearly advocate
reinstituting secularism in the constitution.
Political leaders of all spectrums oppose civil
society activism in the name of traditional
religious values. The culture of intolerance,
hatred and violence of political parties goes hand
in hand with terrorist activities that have
"intruded into the popular psyche" since the
mid-1990s. The state's total failure to check
terrorist threats to democracy is ascribed by many
to the fact that Bangladeshi rulers themselves
patronize Islamic fundamentalism. Politicization
of the bureaucracy and judiciary and the absence
of internal democracy within parties are other
obstacles to democratic practice.
Adriana
Elisapeth narrates how Indonesia's moderate
majority are "powerless in preventing the growth
of militant groups committing violent actions
against non-Muslims". (p 75) Ironically,
democratization in the post-Suharto era opened the
floodgates for expression of overtly religious
identities. Once competitive politics began after
1998, the idea of an Islamic state under sharia
law was revived by extremists. Though the country
is now under civilian rule, "religious ideas could
not strictly be separated from the bases of state
behavior". (p 93)
Thanks to authoritarian
values of "blind obedience", it remains impossible
to force Indonesia's military out of politics
altogether. Islamist outfits like Laskar Jihad
receive financial support and ammunition from
within the army's ranks and from fellow jihadis in
southern Philippines. They force minorities to
live in mortal fear and are also responsible for
enforcing severely gender discriminatory laws of
sharia. Low keenness of civilian politicians in
countering militant Islam is partly responsible
for turning the country into a "hotbed of
terrorism in Southeast Asia". (p 98)
Sadegh Zibakalam's chronicle of democracy
in Iran documents how the post-1979 Islamic
Republic suppressed the democratic elements of the
struggle against the shah and made it appear as if
the revolution was intended to create an Islamic
state. Rivalries among different political
factions and Islamic strands led to purging of
moderate and liberal leaders from the
revolutionary spectrum and their replacement by
fundamentalists. Critics of the current
dispensation in Tehran blame the constitution as a
stumbling block against any democratic
improvement. Too much power belongs to unelected
institutions that veto progressive legislation,
disqualify electoral candidates for lacking
"appropriate Islamic credentials", and deliver
religiously biased justice. The author finds some
solace in the degree of freedom accorded to the
press and relaxation of codes of conduct to form
associations and non-governmental organizations.
Abdul Rahman Embong portrays Malaysia as a
state that "attempts to negotiate with Western
modernity and redeem Islam as a progressive
religion". (p129) This most industrially advanced
Muslim country has maintained a parliamentary
democracy with tolerance toward minorities,
although Islam is the official religion.
Reasonably free elections have been held since
1959 and a grand "consociational" alliance of
parties provides stability.
The problem,
which Embong brushes under the carpet, is absence
of turnover of governments, as the same ruling
alliance has been winning every single election.
Should the Islamist opposition ever triumph at the
polls, a theocracy could possibly
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volume containing six case
studies and posits that one must grasp the
varieties and multiple paths taken by Muslim
politics in the quest for democracy. 
