Can Islam and Democracy co-exist?

in my humble opinion they are mutualy incompatable. Islam dictates submission to the word of god, this is decided by a gang of others who dec ide what god meant when he told his wisdom to a poor shepherd somewhere in the middle east. Now, democracy on the other hand relies on people thinking for themselves. This seems to be against the basic principle of Islam which looks to me like only think if its about god

Isnt it that democracy also ensures the freedom of religion? i think it can co exist. In the level of the state, i think democracy must be reflective of the commonly shared values of people and that this means that a government is democratic enough relative to established norms. True or real sense of democracy is a democracy that works. If democracy is being forced on a country with a varied socio cultural and historical experience, i think it would have a lot of problems and resistance. Like the IRAQ and Afghanistan, I dont think it would be easy for the populace to embrace democracy, when in fact, this type of government is marred with war and deaths of their fellow countrymen. I have nothing against democracy, but if we force democracy and install a so called democracy from the outside, i think it can easily be seen as another tyranny of the ruling clique. Democracy must be appreciated little by little by people by having the people to experience the fruits of democracy down to the grassroots. this is my humble opinion.

The country of Turkey is Islamic and a democracy, isn't it? Even Iraq is tentatively a democracy and is Islamic. Without getting out an atlas, I think there are others. So, yes I think Islam and democracy can co-exist in the same country. The people favoring democracy are just going to have to be aware that Islam believes in theocracy and do what it takes to make them understand Muslims are free to worship as they please but not to impose their beliefs through the power of government. Or did you mean co-exist in the world? Of this, I'm sure. Islam and democracy currently co-exist in the world. There are problems, but I'm confident these will be worked out.

no way no how democracy depends on freedom Islam has no place in it for independant thinkers!

I don't think it is possible for democracy and orthodox Islam to co-exist. I think so because in 'freedom of speech' is an essential component of democracy... we can't make sense of democracy without freedom of speech. But it seems to me that Islam will never give its adherents that right/freedom.

In its present form, I do not believe that Islam and Democracy can co-exist. The two factions Sunnis and Shiites are always so close to civil war or just annihilation from one country to the next, that they cannot even have true peace between countries. Some form of Totalitarian government or very strong Kingship is about the only forms of goverment that would last. No matter what form of government they form, their religion is the top order. That right there starts messing with freedoms and then its downhill from there.

You see only military commanders or monarchs leading the countries where majority are muslims. Probably because of religious background to keep everything in check including the freedom of all sorts, this happens and the religious leaders are pleased because punishments are meted out easily to violators of their religion through autocrats, dictators. Some of the types of punishment existed and dates back to 3000 years of civilization.

My opinion is that they are able to co-exist. One is a religion and a way of life and the other is a governing body designed to control the people. The was a time in North America and Christian European countries that no law could be past that went against the word of Christian God but now look at our laws many go directly against the word of Christian God.

For debate democracy subject can be taken towards any coutry or regions. What is the necessity towards taking particular religion islam and related querries. Democracy in the sense and meaning itself common to all religions and sorts of people . Then is there querries with you of democracy opt the subject with democracy and dictatorship. Pin pointing on particular religions' existence and flexibility towards democracy with religion is and will not be a good debate upto my consent under presence situation. This debate seems particularly judging islam towards democracy.

Of course they can. it would have to be up to the people like everything else.There can be a ruler who is Muslim whose country is a democracy.Where or when is other questions.But I can see it happen.

Helo ladyluna, This is a very intriguing question and requires a lot of deliberation. Short answer is yes and no! To explain my response, I will have to go briefly into some of the very basic concepts, which people usually tend to, either ignore or misperceive or even attribute such things to concepts that are not actually part of those concepts. To start with, democracy can not even start to exist with itself i.e. no democratic Government can function beyond a short period, owing to its very fragile and unrealistic nature. Hence, like Marxist communism, democracy never existed and would never have a chance to subsist due to its very impractical nature. Marx was honest enough to acknowledge the fact that for communism to come to reality, a nation/society will have to go through an intermediate stage which he described as “the dictatorship of the proletariat”. He never claimed that his communist model is workable in the prevailing conditions, and so, as a matter of fact, most of his work concentrates on this transitional phase rather than an actual Communist State which was very vaguely discussed. Yet, this practical model, as perceived by Marx, wasn’t deemed workable, and so, we had Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Maoist and other forms of Communism which were very different from each other in their details, yet having Marxism as their basic driving force. On the other hand, while there is no democracy existing on the face of earth, yet, champions of democracy never seem to admit the fact that what they have isn’t democracy. What we see are manifestations of facets of democracy, not the democracy itself. Thus the basic question that whether or not democracy and Islam can co-exist is not a real or pertinent question; proper question, probably, could be, whether or not American democracy or British democracy or Indian democracy or Australian democracy (all have different working models of manifestations of democracy) can co-exist with Islam. One can further implore to delve into whether one of above mentioned manifestations of democracy can replace the other…answer to that question would not be as simple as it may seem. Humans do not just have political lives. They are real living beings with political, social, cultural, economic, spiritual (not all) and personal responsibilities as well as aspirations, to live with. Any system of Government that doesn’t take into account the collective nature of the populace is bound to fail. Thus, as democracy cannot exist in its pure form, it must be tailored and tampered with to form a more workable and feasible model according to collective national aspirations of people who are willing to adopt this system of Government, and that is just what Nations have done with it. Thus, while we see perceived democracies in many countries, none is similar to other. It must also be combined with other social and economic models to make it work. Thus, we see that, in America it is combined with Capitalism, in France with a Socialist slant, in Russia with communism (Yes, however poles apart they might look, communism and democracy can perfectly co-exist with little tampering with both). Religious, collective spiritual and cultural aspects of populace will also have its impact (after all, in democracy, majority rules). So, we see that the countries who have declared secular constitutions aren’t actually secular. The colour of majorities’ religions is clearly visible from outside; again, America, Britain, France and India are worth noting examples. Sometimes, some people try to connect some noble concepts to democracy and present the both as if those noble concepts are integral part of the democracy, which, in its very nature, is actually inert to such concepts. Freedom, love for humans and nature, truthfulness, accountability, welfare, rule of law, justice etc, etc have no direct relation to democracy per se. If the participating entities are good humans, they will make democracy look good and if they aren’t good, democracy will be as bad as them. If participating entities are ignorant, gullible and easily manipulate-able, democracy will be a terrifying experience as I see it in some places on earth today. Especially, when capitalism is added to democracy (ironically, the two systems are utterly irreconcilable unless they are both corrupted) one will have a lust-ridden system setout on the road to imperialism which is again a historically observable fact/experience. Another grave misperception that some people have is that they think of democracy and secularism as partners or essentially inclusive of each other when, actually, they are quite distinct concepts and can well be mutually exclusive too. A democratic government can be non-secular and a secular government can very well be undemocratic. Democracy is just a neutral political philosophy; it is neither noble nor harmful in itself, for the people themselves construct the very face of democracy. So, it can be anywhere between great, fairly good, working, bad, very bad and an evil or even a curse on society, depending upon who are the people participating in it and how they determine its course. This fact is also acknowledged by the self proclaimed champions of democracy themselves, so while they support a democracy at one place, they vehemently oppose it on others (but they do try to save their hypocritical faces by paying lip service for a need for democracy in places where they actually and practically oppose it). It is also true that much of the terror, destruction and the horrible state of the world, that we are living in now, is brought upon us by the very States and Governments who call themselves democratic (America, Britain, France, Spain, Israel), with some undemocratic (dictatorial) Governments supported by above mentioned democratic Governments along side some examples of secular but undemocratic States like Russia and China. Moreover, with the fact that the crime rates are at their peaks in the countries who are self-proclaimed (falsely so) champions of democracy, it is just natural for a normal person to think that democracy causes terror, imperialism and rule of force rather than force of rule. But, as I don’t judge a system or an institution by the way of its perceived followers, like many illiterate and ignorant people do, while judging other religions, systems or institutions, so no, even given all those facts, I won’t judge that democracy is destructive all in all, it can be very constructive when it’s at its right place, in the right people and most importantly at the right time with the right understanding of what actually a democracy is and how can it be positively applied. Moreover, when considered theoretically, democracy does mean that voice of 51 fools--illiterates--ignorant--gullible is more important and weighty than 49 wise--knowledgeable--intelligent men/women. Though I personally believe that over whelming majority of humans have great potential and are given great capabilities at the time of birth, yet, while growing, we make our choices depending upon family, friends, environment, personal economic realities, general social conditions and personal liking/disliking, which make us grow either wiser and smarter or ignorant and unconcerned. If you consult any psychologist specialising in decision making behaviours, you will get an idea of just how many people make an educated choice while voting and how many remain unconcerned, and seeing the low turn outs or electoral procedures (election of Blair and Bush), it hardly remains a democratic government when compared to its recognized definitions. Couple it with the fact that in a capitalist system, people are too busy in competition and in the vicious monetary circle to have much spare time and mind to ponder deeply over worlds’ or domestic political affairs, one will get a populace which can be easily manipulated owing to the fact that they mainly get what they are fed with…et voila…you have a completely bastardized system unable to handle or even see the problems wisely, and hence the mess we are into. Corporate cultures have been successful in ensuring that democracy is non-existent within a democracy, that educated remain ignorant, that the actual ruling entities are different from the elected entities and that more power is available to few individuals and families than populace in general. Now coming to the question of possibility of co-existence of Islam and democracy; yes it is possible. In fact, early Islam was much more democratic (even more than present day democracies in some aspects and undemocratic in others). People were gathered in mosques or open areas and critical questions were put to public. Though the Prophet and the Caliphs had the final say yet there were many, many decision made from direct public consent and opinion with many others decided by the Prophet or Caliphs themselves after consultation with the experts in the field. Even in these decisions, they don’t differ much with present democratic governments where decisions are made by the cabinet and approved by Assemblies or the other way around. It may surprise you but there are only about less than 550 verses in Quran (out of more than 6500) on which the whole Islamic jurisprudence/law is based. Rest of the Quran contains selected stories of some of the earlier prophets, description of nature, general guidance about social justice and harmony, foreign policy and law making process, leaving much for the people to decide for themselves, especially the learned people. Quran and Islam have only given few basic laws leaving all others to be decided by the people as the time changes. The laws that Quran has prescribed are called Hadoods, others are called Tazeers or with some other names. It may again come as a surprise to you that very, very small percentage of laws is hadood and rest is all Tazeers i.e. decided by the represe

It will be great if you can explain your questions a bit more. You mean democracy in a place where all Muslims live ? Or democracy based on Islamic teachings ? When talking about Islam, many try to compare with Saudi Arabic, Saudi Arabia do not completely resembles an Islamic Sharia Law, they have their own added strict rules. It's possible to co-exist both democracy and Islam, Islamic sharia Laws are supposed to follow only by Muslims, the govt. can choose appropriate rules for non-Muslims in special cases. But in punishing Criminals they may choose Islamic rules. eg. A Muslim woman is supposed cover her body excluding face & arms, Imposing such a rule to all people including non-Muslims is not fair. Also compelling to close all shops on prayer time is not fair, it's ones on will to do it or not. I don't find problem in driving vehicle and all.