Dear Family of the Heart and Friends: 

While I applaud all the speakers, the moderator, and FOTH president Farzana Hassan, for sharing their learned insights about why democracy has not taken root in most Muslim countries, allow me to share with everyone, once again, the comment I made from a purely personal perspective before we concluded the topic of discussion at North York Central Library.

When we say ‘Muslim countries’, we are really acknowledging our ‘identification’ with an idea or ideology that may appear to unite us, superficially I daresay, as ‘Muslims’ whereas, in reality, our idea or ideology of ‘Muslimness’ actually divides us against the rest of humanity—including other Muslims whose Muslimness we may refuse to acknowledge or validate.  

In my view, therefore, the idea or ideology called ‘religion’ (of whatever name or description) and ‘democracy’ (of whatever colour or stripe) is a fixed idea that makes us believe that it is good and valid till the end of time. The history that we borrow from and quote to justify our reasoning does nothing to resolve our dilemma because, today, the post 9/11 world is a different place with a level playing field and, as Muslims, we are not really playing ball. We are refereeing from the sidelines.

In light of this, I suggest we begin to examine why we choose to guard our rigid ideas against the assault of time and the wind of change now blowing in the world, when time demands from us a clarity of perception so that we can see the sanity of change through adaptation, through reason, through compassion for all humanity regardless of the religious persuasion or political affiliation of others, and so on.  

Because this is not happening at the individual or national and international level, our discussion on why democracy has not taken root in Muslim countries should at least trigger the beginning of a personal quest for meaning in a meaningless existence so that we may embrace knowledge instead of ignorance, and science and reason instead of religion, in order to embrace all of humanity instead of fellow Muslims of our own choice. 

True democracy springs from the heart, and, as Munir Pervaiz so aptly pointed out, the perfect democracy has not been born yet!

Rashid Mughal 

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