Does Democracy bring peace to the Muslims problem?

Muslims have encountered many problems which have make them move backward. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, the advocates of the clash of civilizations doctrine have dominated the American political and media scene. Before any evidence was revealed about the identity of the attackers and within a few minutes, Islam and Muslims were placed in the dock by leading American newspaper such for example the New York Times and the Washington Post. In addition, in the western media, Islam was also painted as a violent religion, and ordinary people were made to believe that Islam and terrorism go in hand to hand. this is i think the serious problem that muslims in all over the world is facing right now...we cant even walk peacefully as we always been associates with terrorists...we cant live our life as a human..as a normal life...as a free person...and most importantly as a true muslim that practice Islam as a way of life due to the fact that Islam is always potrayed as a religion of sword....how to solve it??that's the question? HOW??....

m not gonna discussed about why muslims always been potryed as terrorists and islam always been associated with a violent religion...but to see how the system in the muslims world function...that is always been questioned by many politicians...to find the solutions to the problems....DEMOCRACY? does it really works in the muslims world??does it can bring peace to the muslims world??what is democracy? and how can it bring about peace to the muslims country??to begin...first we must know what is democracy....

The word democracy was first used in the fifth century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus; it combined the Greek words ‘Demos’ which means ‘the people’ and ‘kratein, meaning ‘to rule’. According to Abraham Lincoln, democracy means the government by the people, to the people and for the people. To make more precise, democracy is a political system in which the whole people, positively or negatively make the basic determining decisions on important matters of public policy. In democracy, the people are sovereign and it is based on the popular sovereignty. In addition, democracy also confines direct popular control over government and concerns the exercise of power and decision making by a group.

Democracy literally means “rule by the people”. In the modern world, democracy means constitutional representative government in which top decisions makers are elected in open and competitive elections, which almost all adults entitled to vote. (Moten and El-Fatih,2005,p.37) Joseph Schumpeter defines democracy in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote ( L.Hylands, 1995,p.44). Thus, democracy can be summarized as a mode of decision making about collectively binding rules and polices over which the people exercise control, all members of the collectivity enjoy effective equal rights to take part in such decision making directly. (Grugal, 2002,p.12). It also can be defined as a form of government organized in accordance with the principle of popular sovereignty, political equality, popular consultation and majority rule and it also can be characterized by four elements which are the ultimate power is in the hand of the people, all people are equal, political decision must be based on the majority as well as public policy. Thus, it is clear that democracy is the rule of the people, and the power to make decision is in the hand of the people.


The questions whether democracy is the best solution for the Muslims countries is still doubt by several scholars, indeed, democracy is the western concept and would become a western propaganda to control over the Muslims. In addition, the secular concept of democracy is totally not compatible with Islam. Secular here means separates matters from spirit as what been practice in the west. According to Muhammad Iqbal, he said that , the distinction between the Church and the State does not exist in Islam. In Islam, everything that we do must be in accordance to the Quran and Sunnah and it can not be separated. Implement democracy, thus means to instill what so called secularization process which can be said as the deliverance of man from religious and also from metaphysical control over his reason and language, it is the loosing of the world from religious understanding of itself, the dispelling of all closed worldviews and the breaking of all supernatural myths and sacred symbols which is absolutely contradict with the Islamic doctrine. ( Al-Attas, 1978,p.15)

Furthermore, democracy according the western concept is based on the dimension of equality and freedom. In Islam, equality and freedom is also been practice, but it must be in line with the Quran and the Sunnah. This issue will be questioned if the process of democratization is taking place in the Muslims countries especially when it comes to the right of the women in Islam. Logically thinking, the western concept of the right of the women is much more secured, women are treated equally, but in Islam, women’s freedom has a limitation mainly, compared to men. Thus, it will creates problem to the religion, Islam itself, what others will think about Islam particularly non-Muslims?

Muslims have been facing the lost of identity for a long time, therefore, I think, democracy is not the best way to overcome the Muslims problem, but it worsen the whole system. In fact, most of the Muslims countries rejected western democracy due to Bush’s agenda after September 11, which is to promote democracy in order maintain peace in the Muslims countries. In addition, democracy as been mentioned earlier is based on the popular majority; the government has to satisfy the will of the majority of the people, no matter whether the will is good or bad. This is totally contradicted with the Islamic doctrine where the will is only for Allah, the government is obliged to fulfill the will of Allah which is the Devine will. The law that is made by the people in the legislation may have mistakes and contradict with the ‘Will of God” and even some people in the state (the minority). Therefore, the elements of democracy which is the majority rule can not be implementing in the Muslims world because it abuse the right of the minority and contradict with the Law of God.

Moreover, minority which is powerful may also creates problem because their rights is being abandoned, thus, internal problem in the Muslims world may occurred, therefore, the question may arise, is peace can be maintain? In Islam, sovereignty is only for God and not for the people. The abuse of power may occur if the sovereignty is given to the people, and conflict among the people will arise this is due to the fact that, human reasons is limited and may have mistakes, the natural or ‘fitrah’ of a man has a sense of greed, that is why they will abuse the power which is given to them for their own interest. What happen is, the poor become poorer and the rich become richer and the voice of the poor will not be listen due to the principle of ‘democracy’ which is the majority voice.

As a matter of fact, the principle of democracy also indicates that people make their own laws, and as what have been mentioned earlier, democracy brings the elements of secularism which is separate religion from the state. In Islam, people follow the Shariah, the sources which are the Quran and the Sunnah, even in cases people are allowed to do Ijtihad ( rational interpretation) in certain matters, they, however has to follow the Islamic spirit in any decision that they make in order to ensure that it is not contradict with the Islamic teaching. In addition, some said that, democracy is compatible with Islam as in Islam, we practice Shura which has similar concept of democracy, but however, in my opinion, the concept of ‘Shura’ here, if we rationalized it in accordance to the modern world, it can be said as ‘Western Shura’, which means that the concept of ‘ Shura’ has been westernized on the basis of the western secular worldview which is can not be acceptable at all. So, the concept of ‘Shura’ what so called ‘Western Shura’ can not be as the same as Islamic concept of ‘Shura’. For instance, it is important to note that consultation, deliberation and selection method are not new to Muslims. Their initial development can be traced back to the period of Prophet (PBUH) and the period of Khulafa’ Rasyidun. Later, these principles has been developed and advanced by the West with its secular worldview and it is can not be simply acceptable due to the fact that it is totally lost the Islamic spirit and direction.

In conclusion, whether democracy is the best way to overcome the Muslims problem I think, it depends on how the concept is being adopted. However, as discussed earlier, Muslims have lost their own identity for a long time, and the root causes of the problem is not the way they govern themselves or the collapse of the system in the Muslims countries, but the root causes of these problem is simple, it is the violation of the religion itself. Many Muslims nowadays go beyond what is expected, for example, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism which has caused and continuous to cause huge havoc in many societies. Hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of it and the developments of many countries have been distorted by it and there is no end in this tragedy. That is, I think a major problem that the Muslims countries has faces nowadays. Fundamentalist rejects the separation between politics and religion. For them political activities are religiously grounded, as what Khomeini put in his will, ‘Politics is religion’. Shtromas (1994). That was a worse problem of the Muslims countries, so whether democracy can overcome these problems is not the best answer to be given due to the fact that the causes of all these come from the Muslims identity itself. The best way to overcome this is that the Muslims should come back to the true teaching of Islam which is Quran and the Sunnah. If democracy itself bring about the elements of secular, do you think that it can bring peace to the Muslims countries?