Dear Friends,

Reading all the papers and comments has left me scratching my head. I have a lot of questions but I would confine myself to only a few for now.

The fundamental question that I have is: if someone or some people start calling something democracy, does it become one or are there some fundamental requirements for a system to be called a democracy? Is it just elections and parliament that constitute the entire body of democracy or are there some other pre-requisites too? How basic to democracy is the concept that all citizens have equal rights and privileges? 

I am asking the above for following reasons.

Malaysia has been cited many times as an example of democracy in Muslim world. Malaysian constitution grants special privileges to Muslim Malays and if a Muslim Malay is converted to another religion, these privileges are forfeited. I don't know what to call a democracy that doesn't provide equal status to all its law-abiding citizens. Pseudo-democracy, fractional-democracy, democracy-in-progress??? And I am not even going to begin to talk about the Shariah courts in Malaysia.

On the same line, Mr. Javed I. Chaudry told us during his presentation that Maududi was an advocate for the cause of democracy.  I know of a certain Islamic scholar named Maududi but I don't know if he is the one Mr. Chaudry is talking about. The Maududi I know was of the opinion that Qadianis in Pakistan should not be considered equal to the Muslim citizens of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Maududi I know said to Justice Munir Commission that if India decided to do the same to Muslim citizens of India, he would have had no objection. Kind of hard for me to think of him as an advocate of democracy with whatever name he chooses to call the system of governance in his head.

Regards,

Rafi Aamer