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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| claim islam anti-democratic seriously flawed |
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| amatullah |
| 04/14/02 at 21:50:33 |
| Bismillah and salam, Good article by a prominent United Church Minister and Londoner responding to an attack on Islam made by Rory Leishman a London Free Press columnist as being incompatible with democracy. CLAIM ISLAM ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SERIOUSLY FLAWED Relevancy: 100; ( The London Free Press ) REV. BARRY MOORE; 04-11-2002 Size: 4K Reading Level: 10. CLAIM ISLAM ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SERIOUSLY FLAWED BYLINE: REV. BARRY MOORE EDITION: Final SECTION: Opinion Pages COLUMN: Rebuttal MEMO: Rev. Barry Moore is a past president of Fanshawe College and is interimminister at Dorchester and Crumlin United Churches. Regarding Rory Leishman's column, Islam, democracy appear incompatible (April 2). Leishman asks the question, "Is Islam compatible with democracy?" His answer is very clear: "The conclusion is inescapable: In marked contrast to Christianity, Islam is fundamentally incompatible with democracy." In my view, he is very wrong. - Leishman bases his analysis on the work of a civil liberties organization called Freedom House, based in the United States. The study he uses analyses 192 countries in the world on the basis of their recognition of basic political rights and civil liberties. Freedom House concludes that, in spite of the presence of anti-democratic fundamentalist states in some parts of the world, that: " . . . Islam is not inherently incompatible with democratic values . . . ." Leishman uses a very selective interpretation of data in parts of this report to conclude that Freedom House's conclusions are "poppycock." Rather odd, is it not, that the only source he uses to support his sweeping generalizations about Islam being anti-democratic is a report that comes to exactly the opposite conclusion? - Leishman also indicates that, unlike Islam, "the Christian church has embraced freedom, democracy and the separation of church and state over the last 300 years." Here, he rather conveniently forgets places such as South Africa where, for decades, apartheid was based upon so-called "Christian" political views. He also neglects to mention how "Christianity" has been used and is still used to support racist and anti-female views in many countries in the world. It is surely more accurate to say both religions have had their dark periods of oppressing others. To quote only one example about Christianity from the Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity: "One cannot but be struck by the way in which medieval Islam tolerated the Christian and Jewish communities in their midst, whilst medieval Europe exploited, persecuted, and finally destroyed or expelled its Muslim and Jewish subjects." - The main reason for my challenge to Leishman's views has to do with what these views directly and indirectly imply about the 55, 000 to 60,000 Muslims who live in and around London. His views imply these Muslims can be regarded with suspicion because, if they really follow Islam, they cannot be democratic people. Nowhere in his comments does Leishman acknowledge there may be even some Muslims who, on the basis of their faith as Muslims, support democratic systems. Well, there are about 1.2 billion Muslims today and they live in virtually every country of the world, including all of the major democratic countries. Those living in democratic countries far outnumber those who live in the countries upon which Leishman bases his argument. Leishman also appears to believe Islam is a predominantly Arab phenomenon. He needs to know that for every Arab Muslim in the world, there are four others. And some of those folks live right here in London. I happen to believe the Muslim citizens of our region are an exemplary group. They have been here since 1902. They work in every profession. They belong to all of the mainline political parties. They serve on school, college and university boards. They are represented on our city council and they have run for political office at every level. I believe these wonderful people get involved in democratic political activity not, as Leishman's view necessarily implies, to question or even undermine democracy, but to enhance democracy. I believe Muslims here get involved in democratic activity not in spite of their Islamic faith, but because they want to serve that faith well. I believe Leishman and The Free Press owe our brother and sister citizens an apology. KEYWORDS: RELIGION; MUSLIMS REV. BARRY MOORE, CLAIM ISLAM ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SERIOUSLY FLAWED. , The London Free Press, 04-11-2002, pp A8. |
| Re: claim islam anti-democratic seriously flawed |
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| Kashif |
| 04/15/02 at 05:24:23 |
| assalaamu alaikum There is a really good article by Sh. Ja'far Idris entitled "Shoora and democracy" at: http://www.jaafaridris.com/English/Articles/shoora.htm Kashif Wa Salaam |
| NS |
| Re: claim islam anti-democratic seriously flawed |
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| Abu_Hamza |
| 04/15/02 at 12:43:22 |
| [slm] hmm... that link is not working Kashif. |
| Re: claim islam anti-democratic seriously flawed |
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| Kashif |
| 04/15/02 at 17:25:54 |
| That's odd.. its working for me. Kashif Wa Salaam |
| NS |
| Re: claim islam anti-democratic seriously flawed |
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| jannah |
| 04/15/02 at 19:07:40 |
| works for me too! |
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