(This article summarizes a paper presented by Radwan Masmoudi, President of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, at the International Conference on “Religion and Democracy in Europe and the Arab world” organized on 29-30 November 2012, at the Lebanese American University – Byblos- Lebanon.)
Forty or fifty years ago, most thinkers and scholars were predicting the death of religion or even the death of God. Religion had few followers and did not play any major role in life or in politics. I remember growing up in Tunisia in the seventies, mosques were mostly deserted, except by old people who had nothing to do but stay in the mosques and pray. It was rare to see young people going to the mosques or young women wearing the veil. Most of the students in the universities were communists, leftists, and many were openly atheists. In the mid to late seventies, this started to change.
Rise of Religion
We started seeing young people going to the mosques in increasing numbers. We also started seeing women and girls wearing the veil. Both of these acts were considered acts of challenging the government and the ruling elite, which reacted by cracking down very harshly on anyone who was religiously observant. This crackdown in fact helped to make this movement even more popular as people have a tendency to sympathize with people who are oppressed, especially if they are oppressed for their religious beliefs. Since the early eighties, Islamic movements, tendencies, practices, and observance of Islamic values have increased tremendously, not only in the Arab world but throughout the world in general, and religion has become an important part of our life and our culture, both as individuals and as societies. Human beings are not only materialistic animals. We are also spiritual creatures, and belief in God and in spiritual values and principles (that are bigger than ourselves and our material and physical needs) is a very important part of our lives. This is why Islamic movements and Islamic political parties (i.e. political parties that advocate respect for religious values and practices) are on the rise and their popularity is rising across the Arab world.
Rise of Democracy
Simultaneously, and in the past 30-40 years, we witnessed throughout the Arab world and the world in general the rise of the values of freedom and democracy, as an urgent need and requirement for dignity, decency and human rights. For many decades, people in the Arab world thought that the newly independent states or regimes – that were established after gaining independence from European colonizers – would be capable of providing economic development, social justice, dignity, and independence from foreign dominance without necessarily providing freedom or democracy. People were willing to give up (at least temporarily) their demands or aspirations for freedom or dignity, in exchange for economic development and stability. However, after 40 to 50 years of these newly-independent states and regimes, we all found out that these regimes became more and more oppressive and corrupt, as well as increasingly isolated from the legitimate demands and aspirations of the people. Over a period of time, the people realized that without freedom and democracy, not only is there no dignity and no human rights, but also there is no real sustainable economic or social development, and there is no way to stop or fight the endemic and spreading cancer of “corruption”. So, the demands for freedom and democracy became louder and stronger, and the people who were willing to forgo their human and democratic rights for a while, were now demanding their human right to freedom and democracy, and were willing to die for it. This is why the Arab revolutions and Arab awakening occurred. Because for the first time, the demands for social and economic justice were closely tied to the demands for real, genuine, and sustainable freedom and democracy.
Marrying Democracy and Religion
So at this critical juncture in the history of the Arab world and of the Islamic world, more generally, the main challenge that we all face is: how can we succeed in building a strong, thriving, and successful democracy that respects the freedom and the dignity of all the citizens (no matter what their religion, gender, age, color, or ethnic background is), while at the same time respecting the religious values and principles of the majority of the citizens, which are overwhelming Muslim. What does a democracy that respects Islamic values mean exactly (some people prefer to call it an Islamic or Muslim democracy, although that term is not yet clear or well defined)? How can we respect Islamic values without imposing them on the people, while also respecting the individual rights and freedoms of all citizens without forgetting or contradicting our Islamic values and culture? What is the role of religion in society, and what is the relationship between religious values, scholars, and institutions on one hand and political values, leaders, and institutions on the other?
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