Why can't democracy tak root in the Muslim world?

I am writing this in response to Subuhi Ansari’s post #96 and Mustayeen Khan’s post #98.

While Subuhi largely holds colonization and imperialism responsible for the absence of democracy in the Muslim world Mustayeen points to the golden past as a proof that Islam contributed to rather than hindered social, and perhaps political, progress (did I understand Mustayeen correctly?) I see an interesting connection between the two strands of thought.

Subuhi is right in blaming the colonization but only to an extent. Had colonization not interrupted the natural historical process in the Muslim world Muslims probably would have learned from their mistakes, emulated the Western scientific thought, overthrown the decadent monarchies or Khilafats on their own and set their course on a democratic path as the West did in the 17the and 18th century, and also the Turks did in 1923.  Colonization interrupted that process. Worse, it made the Muslims look back to the past and romanticize it. Often, the past they hark back to is more imagined than real. 

Mustayeen’s recounting the names of the Muslim philosophers and scientists of a bygone era proves the point I am trying to make. He is romanticizing the past. Yes, Muslims did produce great scientists and philosophers between the 8th and the 12th centuries whose influence was felt beyond the Muslim world. But their religion or ethnicity (al-Kindi was an Arab while most others were of Persian or Central Asian origin) had nothing to do with their greatness just as Newton’s, Darwin’s or Einstein’s greatness in a later age had nothing to do with their respective religions or ethnicity? In fact, if one studies the individual lives of these great Muslim sciencetists and philosophers one would find that they were able to achieve what they did not because of but in spite of the religion. All of them were rationalists and many of them formally or informally subscribed to the Mu’tazilla school of thought. Mu’tazillas, as we know, believed in relying upon reason when revelation didn’t seem to make sense. They were considered heretics by the orthodoxy of the time.  Many of the luminaries mentioned by Mustayeen lived unconventional lives. Were they alive and living today in Saudi Arabia, Sudan or even Pakistan their lives would have been severely restricted and some might have ended up in jail or worse.

Talent is evenly distributed all over the world regardless of religious or ethnic boundaries.  It is like seed spread over a vast field. The seed germinates only in the soil where conditions are appropriate, where there are sufficient nutrients and moisture and where the soil is deep and not rocky. The seedlings grow into fully- fledged plants only when they are protected against pests, rodents, and other calamities. The early Abbasid caliphs (some of them confessed Mu’tazillas) provided the enabling environment where scientists and philosophers were free to think and speculate without any fear of orthodoxy. In other words there was practically a separation between religion and secular knowledge. Unfortunately, this separation was not maintained in the later years and the orthodoxy, in collusion with the palace, succeeded in imposing restrictions on speculative thought. In fact, many of the luminaries that Mustayeen has mentioned in his post were hounded and persecuted.  Al-Kindi’s books were confiscated by Caliph Mutawakkil  (died 861). Another scholar (Al-Farabi or Al-Razi? I forget the name) was ordered to be hit repeatedly over the head with the book he had written until the book tore apart. The book, probably leather bound, did not come apart but the author went blind. By the end of 12th century the speculative thought in the Muslim world was dead. From there onwards it was mostly a downhill journey. Rest, as the say, is history.

Burning of the libraries in Baghdad and Cordoba in the 12th or 13th century is a very flimsy excuse offered by Mustayeen for the Muslim world not making any social or political progress for the last 800 years. Look at what happened to Germany and Japan. They were almost totally destroyed in WW-II. But they rose literally from the ashes and became two of the most powerful economies of the world in less than 50 years. And, both are democracies.

So, the whole thing boils down, in my view, to removing religion from the affairs of the state. If Muslims do that they can have liberal democracies in their respective countries like the West and still keep their religion. Otherwise, they will go on debating until the Day of Judgment whether sovereignty belongs to God or the people.

Aziz Ahmad
Philadelphia
May 25, 2006