By Mursi Saad El-Din I return to Moataz Abdel-Fattah's Democratic Values in the Muslim World (published by the American University in Cairo Press) that I had discussed here last week. After five chapters of material collection and wide survey, the researcher sums up his findings in a comprehensive conclusion. The first observation he makes in the conclusion is that there is a range of attitudes among contemporary Muslims regarding the concept of democracy. There are representative of each of the four main schools of thought: traditionalists, modernists, pluralists and static. The traditionalist narrative is in the minority in most Muslim societies. Saudi, Yemeni, Sudanese, Pakistani and Nigerian societies are, in the author's words, "the most plagued by this inherently antidemocratic belief system. Their political cultures are definite obstacles to democratisation". On the other hand, it is clear that Muslim societies can achieve high degrees of receptivity to democracy, as in the case of Egypt. In these countries, there is an intellectual elite "who have injected debates about democratic norms into the public arena." Following the recent debates and writings in Egypt does lend credence to this finding. The author is of the opinion that some societies, including Egypt, "are moving toward greater acceptance of democratic norms. But accepting democracy does not mean marginalising religion". Where democracy does emerge in the Muslim world "it is likely to have a strong religious components." Abdel-Fattah adds that his survey resulted in an important lesson, namely that free and fair elections in most Muslim countries would give Islamists political power. In other words, Islamists will be among the beneficiaries of democratisation. The author then goes on to summarise some of his findings. The first is that the more educated Muslims are, the more they support democracy. Second, that women are more supportive of democracy than men in all Muslim societies. Third, that Muslims who have resided in a democratic country for a year or longer endorse democracy more than those who did not have this experience. An important finding is that both pro- and anti- democratic Muslims blame the West for the continuation and spread of dictatorships in the Muslim world, and thus refuse it as a credible agent of democracy. Modernist Islamists, Abdel-Fattah claims, treat democracy, insofar as it does not contradict the clear-cut taboos of Islam, as a weapon with which to fight dictatorship and ensure pluralism in society. They argue that democracy is the core component of modernity and should be adopted on secular grounds. Democracy must become a dominant culture, and Muslims, they offer, must widely and unambiguously accept that Islam and democracy are compatible. Supporters of democracy in the Muslim world should make more effort to "Islamise democracy rather than democratise Islam". Islamising democracy is a philosophical, theological and juristic endeavour that aims "at finding Islamic roots for democratic norms and praxis". Many sayings and actions of the Prophet can be endorsed "as Islamic roots of majority rule, and moral and political equality of men and women and non-Muslims". Islam, the author asserts, is widely known to be more pluralistic than many other religions. Abdel-Fattah quotes an Algerian Muslim leader who believes that "when Islamists are given the chance to comprehend the values of Western modernity, such as democracy and human rights, they will search in Islam for a place for these values, implant them, nurse them, and cherish them just as the Westerners did before when they implanted such values in a much lesser fertile soil". The researcher concludes that democratic norms and praxis are not entirely western. They are mankind's shared effort to fight despots and tyrants anywhere and anytime. This book presents the kind of rational argument Islam needs today.
