Islam and Democracy
The University of montana Political science 400
Islam and Democracy
Daniel Ryan
4/4/2013
In the realm of world politics today the concern of the stability of countries in the Muslim world is increasing. In newspapers and news shows on an almost if not daily bases there are stories on the rise of political turmoil and an increase of Islamic influence and precepts in the Muslim world. This increase has many concerned about the future of the Muslim world. What does this mean for the rest of the world? What impact could this have on the advancement of democracy in the Muslim world? To answer these questions you must first ask and answer others.
Islam and democracy are these two concepts irreconcilable? Does one mean the other has no place in the State? Can a State incorporate Islamic principals in public policies and still be democratic? These questions and many more are very important questions in global politics today, that need answering. My goal for this paper is not to necessarily answer these questions but to explore them and to evaluate some of what has been written about this subject in order to formulate a possible research project.
The first article that I have chosen to examine for this paper is an article written by Jafar Kabiri Sarmazdeh entitled Islam and Democracy. The article was published in the Journal of American Science, 2012; 8(1):591-595]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). In this article, Jafar Kabiri Sarmazdeh argues that the perceived incompatibility between Democracy and Islam by political scientist is not true. Jafar argues that their emphasis that secularism is key to democracy leads them to conclude that a religiously based government cannot be a democratic government. Jafar tries to show in this article that this problem is not scientifically based and false and that religion and democracy are not incompatible with each other. Jafar argues that the definition of democracy has changed over time and is different from one democracy to
Islam and Democracy
Daniel Ryan
4/4/2013
In the realm of world politics today the concern of the stability of countries in the Muslim world is increasing. In newspapers and news shows on an almost if not daily bases there are stories on the rise of political turmoil and an increase of Islamic influence and precepts in the Muslim world. This increase has many concerned about the future of the Muslim world. What does this mean for the rest of the world? What impact could this have on the advancement of democracy in the Muslim world? To answer these questions you must first ask and answer others.
Islam and democracy are these two concepts irreconcilable? Does one mean the other has no place in the State? Can a State incorporate Islamic principals in public policies and still be democratic? These questions and many more are very important questions in global politics today, that need answering. My goal for this paper is not to necessarily answer these questions but to explore them and to evaluate some of what has been written about this subject in order to formulate a possible research project.
The first article that I have chosen to examine for this paper is an article written by Jafar Kabiri Sarmazdeh entitled Islam and Democracy. The article was published in the Journal of American Science, 2012; 8(1):591-595]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). In this article, Jafar Kabiri Sarmazdeh argues that the perceived incompatibility between Democracy and Islam by political scientist is not true. Jafar argues that their emphasis that secularism is key to democracy leads them to conclude that a religiously based government cannot be a democratic government. Jafar tries to show in this article that this problem is not scientifically based and false and that religion and democracy are not incompatible with each other. Jafar argues that the definition of democracy has changed over time and is different from one democracy to