Democracy Cannot be Established in an Arab Nation

"Democracy cannot be established much less survive in any Arab nation without the abandonment or dissolution of Islam. In order to understand why, we must realize basic assertions of Islam that are contradictory to our Western civilization and the role of democracy.

The Western mind views 'Theocracy' as primitive, even though basic moral laws are expected from the government. The common expectation is that government left unchecked will always infringe on personal rights. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are seen as basic liberties. To Islam however theocracy has always been a main objective. Mohammed was a militarist, statesman, judge, and apostle of God. Throughout the Qur'an, Mohammed extols violence to subdue the non-believer this activity is called Jihad.

Moslems view the establishment of the Islamic political state as missionary activity. The very term Islam means submission in Arabic. The establishment of Islam as political law is called Shar’ia law. “In classical form the Shar’iah differs from Western systems of law in two principal respects. In the first place the scope of the Shar’iah is much wider, since it regulates man's relationship not only with his neighbors and with the state, which is the limit of most other legal systems, but also with his God and his own conscience.”

Encyclopedia Britannica defines Shar'ia law as follows: This means that in Islamic nations you are legally punished for not obeying the Islamic religion.  Iran has executed Moslems who converted to Christianity and in Moslem nations adulterers are stoned to death. The Quran is practiced as secular law whenever Moslems become a political majority. Mohammed from the very beginning founded the Mosque as a place of military, political and religious activity.

Our misunderstanding of the role of the Mosque in Arabic society was problematic in our invasion of Iraq:

Some were shocked to learn that militants were hiding within these Mosques in Fallujah, where the military also discovered stockpiles of weapons. It is an excellent example of our misunderstanding of Islam. When American military commanders finally got tired of rocket attacks, and murderous fire coming from the Iraqi Mosques they began invading. The Western mindset of our military felt it was wrong to attack a house of worship. Moses in the Old Testament instituted cities of refuge under the administration of the priesthood where criminals were given immunity. The house of God was a refuge. This dates back to the European idea of sanctuary and even before, if a criminal made it to the church the political authorities could not go in after him. 

Mohammed conducted 74 military campaigns and many assassinations, and the mosque was where they were planned and carried out. Every Moslem nation in the Middle East today is a result of military invasion.  

From the Official Islamic Web Site Regarding Democracy (www.islamicweb.com)

• Islam is against pure democracy
• Islam tolerates slavery

The misconception does not follow from the reasons given, and the reasons ignore a great deal of information.

As stated earlier, Islam is a complete way of life. Given this, it is not surprising that the Creator is concerned with the method which we choose to govern ourselves. The preeminent rule which the Islamic state must observe is stated in the Qur'an (translation follows):