Jalal Abualrub
‘Islamist democrats,’ those Islamic groups and political parties that are fascinated by democracy, seek democracy and call for it, and consequently, purely call for secularism. They first mix two systems that are profoundly different from each other, one that ascribes power, ruling, and legislation to Allah, Alone without partners, while the other ascribes all power to the people and takes these aspects away from Allah. By definition, the latter is indeed ruling by other than what Allah revealed, so how can a Muslim even contemplate such a system, let alone call to it, struggle to implement it, and make it a Da’wah slogan and mission? Islamist democrats actually believe and may propagate themes like: Islam legislates and calls for democracy; Islam fosters socialism; Islam ‘allows’ people to sin and break Allah’s law since it promotes liberalism and freedom of religion and choice. Even communism was promoted in the name of Islam through such books as, Ishtirakiyyat Al-Islam, Islamic Socialism, by some famous authors.
Secondly, democracy allows the righteous and the sinner, the honorable and the dishonorable, the truthful and the liar, the scholar and the ignorant, the practicing Muslim and those who do not even pray or fast, equal role in voting and in having a say about who leads and who legislates. In Islam, the testimony of sinners is, at least, not accepted as they should be punished for the crimes they commit, let alone be allowed to vote and decide who runs the government and who legislates?
Thirdly, some Islamist groups have clearly stated that if the constitution ‘they wrote’ when they were in power leads to a communist being the head of state [and the largest group in parliament], so be it! So it seems that Muslims who are described as being ‘Islamist,’ whatever that means, spend all power and effort, all the energy of the youth who follow them, all the money and organization, calling for a return to Islam, but through having a constitution that allows for men, slaves of Allah, not Allah, Creator of the slaves, to legislate for other slaves, selecting a parliament that may be led by people who are fundamentally against Islamic law, and a kafir leader!
Fourthly, because Islam and democracy are incompatible and different at the core, and where people choose the latter to rule them, Islam will effectively and clearly be excluded from ruling people’s lives in politics, legislation, law, code of punishment, code of conduct, etc. All of these aspects will be at least suspended or follow the whims and desires of voters. All this will also be done in the name of Islam!
Finally, where a majority of the voters refuse to allow Islam to rule them, they will go out in mass demonstrations, dancing, mixing, chanting, shouting calling on the army, the very tool of oppression they had revolted against, to take power away from even the defective constitution written by, Islamist democrats, when they were in power. This only exposes the defective and clearly backward call for democracy through Islam, and the hypocrisy of liberal democrats. The first group, Islamist democrats, effectively dismantles Islamic law and assigns power to the people, even where a large segment of the population is not in support of Islam. The second group, liberal democrats, calls for and supports democracy, but only if they win. If they lose the election, they revolt against what is effectively a mutilated, impure version of Islam manufactured by Islamist democrats, a version of Islam that allows the people who oppose Islam to vote and decide to rule by what men reveal not what Allah has revealed. When they lose, liberal democrats will not hesitate to call for and support the very center of oppression, the army, to take over and save them from even a hint of Islam represented by Islamist democrats. Is it strange that liberal democrats would reach such an end that in effect overthrows democracy in the pretext of saving it from ‘Islamization’? Islamist democrats and liberal democrats: They both give equal right to Ibn Taimiyyah and Bill Maher in deciding how Allah’s slaves should live on his earth and what legislation should rule their lives.