Islam: Even though Islam and Democracy are secret enemies there is hope for change from within - by RM

Tariq Ramadan

Whatever" the West" wants to believe, the complexities of Islam in the modern world and the currents of fanaticism and radicalism cannot be regulated by Western-style democracy or military intervention.

Change can only come from within.

Alon -Ben Meir wrote in the American Thnker: "Islam is the most recent of the Abrahamic religions to emerge on the world stage. Monotheism in general, and specifically as it developed in the Dark and Middle Ages, in principle reflects extremely authoritarian regimes.

Theologically, it posits a cosmic or heavenly hierarchy with absolute authority in God, angels in go-between positions, and a fallen humanity in need of salvation at the base of the pyramidal power structure.

It is no surprise then that in the centuries wherein the Catholic Church was at its zenith of influence in the West, political power was held by kings, popes, emperors, and powerful nepotistic and despotic elite with huge economic chasms between the people and their rulers.

Obviously, all these structures were not compatible with democracy.

Christianity and Judaism, being monotheistic, are no less inheritors of this stratified and centralized power paradigm, but unlike Islam these religions were effectively secularized and toned down during the century of the European Enlightenment.

Thinkers like Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, and Hegel paved the way for Marx, Schopenhauer, Buber, and Sartre to challenge conventional approaches to religious ideologies and political formations.

Traditional monotheism, with its highly categorized view of man and God, may not in itself be wholly compatible with democracy, but modern Western monotheism gradually molded itself to new ways of thinking during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and was certainly forced to do so amid rapid scientific and technological advances."

If we look at the turmoil in the Middle East today we see nothing, or any country in the area that seems to offer any hope which will make the area change for the better when it comes to Democracy or equal opportunities for all its citizens.

Some people claim that the development of democracy in the Islamic world eventually came to a halt following the Sunni-Shia split. But was there ever any democracy to speak of ?

Even  Erdogan's Turkey, which was on the right track when the followers of Ataturk known as Kemalists where in control, is now sliding back into "re-introduced undemocratic Muslim traditions", inspired by Fethullah Gulen a Turkish Cleric who directs a world-wide network from a US sanctified base in Pennsylvania.

The question that obviously arises is, where is the Muslim equivalent of  the Christian  Martin Luther who can steer Islam onto a more modern and democratic course without compromising the basics principles of the religion ? A name which keeps on surfacing when this question is brought up is Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan  might not a household name in the US, but the Swiss professor is probably one of the most important and knowledgeable intellectuals in the world when it comes to Islam.

Ramadan’s thinking, his methods and his personal history are all connected to the same question: Islam’s encounter with the modern world. Can the youngest of the world’s three great monotheisms co-exist harmoniously with the Western world and its Enlightenment legacy? Or is it fated to be reactionary, closed off from the world, an excuse for terrorism and failure?

Ramadan’s theological inquiries cut to the heart of the motivations of the Sept. 11 terrorists, of the apocalyptic claims of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Iranian mullahs. Above all, however, they are concerned with that disputed terrain where Islamic tradition collides with modernity.

Ramadan has the credentials and credibility to confront Islam’s modern identity on its own terms. Many Muslim scholars recognize that no one is more orthodox in his methods and sources, or more innovative in his conclusions.

He is genuinely radical ub the good sense of the word, rather than reactionary. Quiet, thoughtful and deeply religious, he always closes his e-mails with: “May the Light protect you and go with you and all the people you love.” 

Indeed,  there is hope for Islam around the world, but it won't be coming from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey. or the U.S.A.

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