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AZIZ
AHMAD
Why has
democracy not taken root in most Muslim countries? -
FOTH SEMINAR APR. 02, 2006
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Aziz Ahmad |
Now that
we have had a class or two each in political science, social
studies, Islamiyaat, Pakistan studies, and even Mathematics
--- you also had a break to tell jokes, to shout at each
other, fly paper planes and throw chalks at the professor
--- let’s get back to work. Please open your books to the
page on “Why hasn’t democracy taken root in the Muslim
world?” We will have a short lecture in ancient and medieval
history.
To recap the last
lecture (#17), we are talking about liberal democracy --- a
system of governance where economic, political and religious
freedoms of citizens are protected --- and not just casting
of votes. If you equate democracy merely with casting of
votes then you will have to accept Egypt, too, as a
democracy where Hosni Mubarak was recently elected by over
80 percent of votes ---as he has been for the past 24 years.
The obvious
question that comes to one’s mind is: How come the West was
able to achieve liberalism and democracy but the Muslim
world finds it difficult to do so even in the 21st century.
To answer that question, let us take a quick ride down the
long road the West took to achieve democracy and try to
identify some of the major milestones.
To begin with,
Christianity, as a religion, did not prescribe any model or
method of governance. If at all, Jesus is interpreted by
some to have drawn a clear line between state and religion
when he famously said to the Pharisees, “Render unto Caesar
that belongs to Caesar and unto God that belongs to God”
(Matthew 22:15-22).
Secondly, unlike
the Prophet of Islam, Jesus was not very successful in his
mission during his lifetime. He was not able to convert many
people to his side, nor did he rule any community, city or
state. On the contrary, he was arrested for preaching his
mission, tried, sentenced and crucified at a very young age.
His followers had to remain in hiding or keep a low profile
for fear of persecution for a very long time. It was only
some three hundred years after his death that Christianity
became a dominant faith.
There was nothing
either in the life of Jesus or in the Christian scriptures
that could be used as a model for political governance.
By the beginning
of the fourth century Christianity had become an organized
religion with a hierarchy of priests and bishops who not
only controlled the church properties but, to a great
extent, also influenced and controlled the lives of lay
citizens.
In 324 A.D.
Emperor Constantine shifted his capital from Rome to
Byzantium and named it Constantinople (present day
Istanbul). He shifted his entire court and a huge population
from Rome to the new capital, but left the Bishop of Rome
behind. Fareed Zakaria in his highly readable book, The
Future of Freedom, comments on this move thus:
“Separated from
the center of state power and intrigue, the Roman church
flourished, asserting its independence. While the East
(Byzantium) fell under the control of the state, the West
(Rome) came under the sovereignty of religion… This historic
separation between church and state was to have fateful, and
beneficial, consequences for humankind ... for 1500 years
after Constantine's move, European history was marked by
continual strife between church and state. From the sparks
of those struggles came the first fires of human liberty."
European kings and
monarchs, particularly those of England, were different from
their counterparts in the East in that their relationship
with their subjects was not that of a master and slaves. The
barons and lords were autonomous and ran their fiefdoms
fairly independently. Whenever the king needed to fight a
war the lords provided soldiers to the “center” and in
return they were allowed by the crown to levy and collect
taxes, keep a part for themselves and contribute the rest to
the “center”. There was always a tussle, sometime a bloody
armed struggle, between lords and king --- the former
demanding more autonomy and the latter demanding more
control. It was somewhat like the struggle nowadays in
Balochistan between the local sardars and the federal
government of Pakistan.
After a prolonged
struggle between the English aristocracy and king, a truce
was signed in 1215 between the two sides. This truce came to
be known as Magna Carta, which not only guaranteed the
privileges and rights of aristocracy but also had provisions
guaranteeing the freedom of church and the local autonomy
for towns. Again, in Zakaria’s words, “over time the
document (Magna Carta) was interpreted more broadly by
English judges thereby further protecting and strengthening
individual rights”.
Meanwhile the
church under the control of the bishop of Rome had become
very powerful --- and corrupt, which eventually led to
Martin Luther famously nailing his “protest” on the door of
the Castle Church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. This
was the beginning of Protestant movement or Reformation.
“One hundred and fifty bloody years later almost half of
Europe was Protestant”.
Much later, in the
late 18th century and early 19th century came the Industrial
revolution, which give rise to a large business and
industrial class --- a new power group.
In Fareed
Zakaria’s words “the consequences of these struggles ---
between church and state, lord and king, Protestant and
Catholic, business and state --- embedded themselves in the
fabric of Western life, producing greater and greater
pressures for individual liberty, particularly in England
and, by extension, in the United States.”
It can be seen
that liberalism came to the West much before democracy did.
Democracy, where every adult citizen --- men and women,
landlords and tenants, rich and poor, whites and blacks ---
could vote freely, came only in the early 20th century. It
was liberalism that led to democracy, which in turn led to
more liberty and so on.
Now, let’s ride
down the road the Muslim world took to reach the present
situation they find themselves in. But, my class time is
up! I can see some of the students yawning and some even
looking for an opportunity to throw a few chalks at me. See
you in the next class.
Aziz Ahmad
Philadelphia
May 3, 2006
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