Have you thought about the fact: why most Islamic countries are either monarchies or theocracies or military dictatorships? Why many such countries don’t even have a constitution?

This means there are fundamental elements or values in Islam which make it incompatible with democracy. Lets analyze them.

What societal traits are must have to make a democracy successful? I would list the below 3.

  1. Inclusivity
  2. Acceptance of differences
  3. Respect towards the will of the people.

Islam is barely inclusive. Lets look at the below example and compare that with Hinduism.

  1. Many centuries back Ganpati Bhatta (from western India where Lord Ganesha is mostly worshipped) visited Puri, a town is eastern India where Lord Jagannath is revered and worshipped. When he paid a visit to the temple, he found Jagannath in his own form. He got disappointed and headed to his hometown. On his way back, he met an old gentleman. He asked Bhatta “why are you disappointed?“. Bhatta narrated his story. The Old man then said Bhatta “Go back again to the temple and you will see Jagannath is the form of Lord Ganesh“. Bhatta went back to the temple and to his surprise he saw Lord Jagannath taken the form of elephant God (Lord Ganesh). From that onwards, on the very same day Lord Jagannath takes “Hathi Vesa” every year to commemorate the incident.
  2. Many Centuries back, the people of Mecca worshipped many Gods and Goddesses(some 300+). A person from within, wanted all to worship only one God and throw away others. He is driven away from Mecca. Several years later he comes back with a huge army, captures Mecca. And then his followers destroy the idols of all Gods and Goddesses in Kabba. They slaughter all people who did not stop worshipping their owns Gods or Goddesses.
  3. What’s the difference in above two incidents? In the first incident, the faith of Ganapati Bhatta was duly honored and respected unlike the second case where the people who did not subscribe to one particular faith were mercilessly slaughtered.

Lets come to second reason as why Islam doesn’t accept differences. Let me give 2 examples.

  1. The Indian subcontinent was divided to form India and Pakistan. The West Pakistan (current day Pakistan) adopted Urdu as it’s official language. In East Pakistan (current day B’desh) people spoke Bengali. Form the day one of creation of Pakistan, the dictatorship tried to suppress and eliminate Bengali. Urdu was imposed on Bengali speaking people. The people of B’desh could not use Bengali in their official communication, Bengali was stopped to be taught in schools, and many steps were taken to eliminate the Bengali language. What happened? People revolted and finally B’desh got separated. Lets come to India. The 8th schedule of Indian constitution lists the languages that can be used officially in India. It originally consisted 15 languages, now it contains 22. Article 345 of constitution allows states to adopt any language they want from this list to communicate. Any MP can speak in one of these languages in the Parliament, and the translations would be made available instantly in Hindi and English to others who cannot understand. Article 350B of constitution makes provisions for protection of Linguistic minorities.
  2. Criticizing the Prophet (PBUH) or the Holy Q’uran is punishable with death.  In US, media and people alike openly made mockery of presidents including the ones like Lincoln. In US and Europe many people criticize the Holy Bible. Lord Buddha vociferously criticized the Vedas. Charbak rejected Vedanta philosophy. Imagine any person doing so in Saudi or Iran.

Lets understand the third reason, “Disrespect towards the will of the people”?

Islam has traditionally believed on one concept “Ruling by virtue of conquest or force”. For e.g. Taliban feels it rightful to rule over Afghanistan simply because it captured the whole nation. Taliban doesn’t  care if it has support of people or not. When Mecca was captured, no damn was given to view of the Meccan people. Same was case everywhere, whether Iran or India or Sindh or Europe.

Hence almost (read all) Islamic nations are ruled by kings or  theocrats or corrupt military dictators. There are no functioning democracy in any Islamic country.

 

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.