Download ISLAM AND THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY AND

ISLAM AND THE CHALLENGE
OF DEMOCRACY AND SECULARISM
Nur Munir
A. Tour on the Phenomenology of the Muslim World
Dear audience, the contents of this paper are neither to represent any nationality, cultural,
religious group nor automatically represent my own belief, rather this paper is an expositional
report relying on the collected data to be presented as academically as possible. I am alone
responsible for any mistake or misleading contentions of this paper, therefore I put on the table
to this audience to find any mistakes, and to correct.
Professor Khaled Abou el-Fadl in the beginning remarks of his book states: “For Islam,
democracy poses a formidable challenge. Muslim jurists have argued that law made by a
sovereign monarch is illegitimate because it substitutes human authority for God’s sovereignty.
But law made by sovereign citizens faces the same problem of legitimacy. In Islam, God is the
only sovereign and ultimate source of legitimate law. How, then, can a democratic conception of
the people’s authority be reconciled with an Islamic understanding of God’s authority?”1
I argued with him during his general lecture on Islamic Theology, Shari’ah, and Human
Rights Doctrine in the Sperry Room, Andover Hall of Harvard Divinity School (HDS) on March
5th 2008. He proposed a theory that Human Right conception, the base for liberal democracy,
was a product of Western Europe. I argued this is a naive theory. It was a product of
International communities which was ultimately established in the Universal Declaration of
Human Right set forth by the United Nation on December 10, 1948 signed by UN Secretary
General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, ratified by many countries of the world especially those newly
countries independent from Western European colonies, mostly Muslim newly countries. He
replied me simply stated that the Universal Declaration of Human Right of the UN is a lie.2
To the contrary, John Esposito states “Many parts of the Muslim world, from North
Africa to Southeast Asia, independence movements employed Islamic symbols, slogans, parties
and actors to legitimate their struggle (jihad) and mobilize popular support. Thus, for example in
North Africa , the Algerian ‘ulama calls for jihad and Islamic publication played a prominent
role in calling for end to French rule and the reaffirmation of Algeria’s Arab-Islamic heritage. In
the Indian subcontinent, Muslim nationalism became the raison d’etre for the creation of
Pakistan with its two wings (West and East Pakistan). However, the post-independence period
witnessed the emergence of modern Muslim states whose pattern of development was heavily
1
2
Khaled Abou El Fadl, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2004, p.4
MP3 Voice record file is available with me.
1
influenced by and indebted to Western secular paradigms or models.”3 The secular paradigms
and models include liberal democratic leadership and legal system.
The phenomenology of the Muslim world according to John Esposito is in contrast to the
pessimistic approach of Professor Abou el-Fadl above. To see which one is more historically
valid between these two views, let us take a tour through the Muslims world. How do they
handle the legal and democratic system?
First, in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi
or AK Parti, or AKP), the ruling Turkish political party which describes itself as centre-right
conservative party, the conservative Muslim party won election recent year. The underlying
principles of the Turkish state have been reaffirmed by the AKP government throughout its
tenure, and the Turkish people have expressed their approval of a ruling party that is at ease both
with Turkey’s secular political landscape as well as its roots in a culture tied to Islamic
civilization.
Turkish Grand National Assembly elected in May 2007 a new president to succeed
President Sezer, whose term ended on May 16. Opposition parties led a Constitutional Court
challenge to the electoral procedures, which resulted in a series of proposed constitutional
amendments and early general elections on July 22. AKP won 46.6 percent of the vote, followed
by CHP (20.9 percent), MHP (14.3 percent) and independents (5.2 percent). The new parliament,
which was sworn in on August 4, 2007 includes 341 AKP members, 97 CHP members, 70
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members, 20 Democratic Society Party (DTP) members, 13
Democratic Left Party (DSP) members, one Freedom and Democracy Party (ODP) member, one
Grand Unity Party (BBP) member and five independents. Following the election, Sezer
reappointed Erdogan as Prime Minister and then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul again declared
his presidential candidacy. The parliament elected Gul in the third round of voting on August 28,
2007. President Gul approved Erdogan's proposed cabinet on August 29, and the new
government received a vote of confidence on September 5. Nationwide local elections for
municipal assembly and mayoral positions are scheduled for March 2009. Through liberal
democratic process, the conservative Muslim party in Turkey now is in power. Professor Abou
el-Fadl’s claim does not happen in Turkey.
Now let’s take a look in Egypt, after its struggle for independence from United Kingdom
on February 28, 1922. Using Islamic adversity as a tool toward the independence, at the end, the
country ratifies the law of commonwealth which is rooted from French law codes for Egyptian
positive law. The ratified law was for both al-qonun ad-dauli (Egyptian public law) and alqonun ash-shahSi (Egyptian private law) in that country, excluding ahwalu sh-shahSiyah ( law
governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance), despite its dustur (basic law) states that the
Shariah is the source of the country’s law with the official country’s name Gumhuriyyah MiSro
l-‘arobiyah ad-democrathiyah (the Arab Republic of Egypt, the democratic)
3
Azzam Tamimi and John L. Esposito, editor, Islam and Secularism in the Middle East, New York University Press,
New York, 2000, p.2
2
Similarly, Sudan declared independence on January 1, 1956. However, the
commonwealth law from British rule is still current though Shari’ah is a symbol of country’s
law. The difference is, for Egypt, it does not declare itself to be an Islamic country, but for
Sudan, the Republic of Sudan with declaring itself Islamic.
Indonesia, the most Muslim populous country in the world, was born in 1945 after a long
period under Dutch colony. The country based on Pancasila (the five principles) derived from its
own cultural value of settlers’ ancestry, recognizing many official religions. Moral value of the
pancasila is to a great extent parallel to moral value of the Shari’ah, though its positive laws until
today are based on the translation of Dutch laws, both criminal and private laws, the law rooted
from European codex law.
It is difficult to differentiate the value of legal system between which one is rooted from
Islam and which one is rooted from the secular world. It is difficult to differentiate between them
almost all aspects, from the less to the most radical one. For example the most radical one,
capital execution against the crime of bringing excessive amounts of heroin in Saudi Arabia, the
country based on the Shari’ah, one example of the execution I witnessed in 1993, is a similar
phenomena to what happens in a non-shari’ah based country of Singapore. The city-state of
Singapore had capital punishment since it was a British colony, which today has had the highest
per-capita execution rate in the world according to UN records. The next highest is Saudi Arabia.
That is one example of how difficult is to differentiate between which one is Islamic and which
one is secular rooted law. The similarities also applicable in many other areas of law, and
precisely is the adoption of western law in Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Sudan, etc. beside also in
certain degree there are differences, such as in any Muslim countries there is no legal approval
for marriage gay and lesbian. But this is not specifically Islamic attitude. Among states in
America although their legal system is not based on shari’ah, yet only the state of Massachusetts
grants same sex marriage license. The rest of the states in America do not.
Muslim countries’ attitude toward western secular legal system is the same to their
attitude toward western liberal democracy. For example Indonesia, from its birth in 1945 adopted
liberal democracy for its leadership succession. In1998 the downfall of President Soeharto
marked the further liberalizing of its democracy.
Professor Abou el-Fadl’s claim that the liberal democracy for Muslim poses a formidable
challenge does not happen. Instead of a formidable challenge, Muslims take it, and often use it to
legitimize their position before the West, including by those groups that the West identifies them
fundamentalists, such as Hamas.
Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyyah), the “Islamic Resistance Movement" is a
militant organization and political party. By using liberal democracy as a tool to legitimize its
position, currently Hamas holds a majority of seats in the legislative council of the Palestinian
Authority since January 2006. Yet, its position remains illegitimate before the West. That was
parallel to the previous phenomena in Algeria, whose official name is the People's Democratic
Republic of Algeria.
3
Starting in 1989, the Algerian government allowed political reform and elections. The
country has been ruled by one party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), since
independence. In June 1990, Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), the Islamic party, won by large
margins in local elections. In legislative elections in December 1991, the FIS won again.
They seemed poised to win a runoff election one month later that would put them in power.
But on January 11, 1992, the army staged a coup, overthrowing President Chadli Benjedid
and canceling the runoff elections. Within months, the FIS was banned, its local officials
elected in 1990 were removed from office, and tens of thousands of suspected sympathizers
imprisoned and often tortured. Radical Islamists went to underground militant groups.
Shortly after January 11, 1992, the US tacitly supported Algerian government’s cancellation
of elections.
After the junta ruling Algeria suspended elections and declared martial law, the US
decided to tacitly support the junta’s actions. Islamist groups were poised to take power.
Secretary of State James Baker later explained, “We pursued a policy of excluding the
radical fundamentalists in Algeria even as we recognized that this was somewhat at odds
with our support of democracy.”
US State Department report commented that the US supported the Algerian junta with
“something of a wink and a nod.” Algeria became embroiled in a civil war and the Algerian
government’s crackdown on opponents became increasingly brutal, but the US continued to
support the junta.4
This is a picture of the West’s dilemma on the genuine democratic application in the
Muslim world, if we cannot say it the West’s ambiguity. Contrary to Professor Abou el-Fadl’s
claim, the democracy was not a formidable challenge for Muslims, instead a formidable
challenge for the West if the democratic election happens for Muslims like in Algeria and Hamas
cases.
In this context, the West faces a problem if it allows a genuine democracy in the Muslim
world. Maintaining authoritarianism allows the West to control Muslims through its allies or
those negotiable individuals among elites within each country such as Mubarak, Arafat, King
Abdullah of Jordan, Perves Musharraf of Pakistan, and more importantly, Junta Aljazair.
Otherwise, as Fareed Zakaria quotes President Mubarak’s responds to a US diplomat when he
raises the issue of human rights “If I were to do what you ask, Islamic fundamentalists will take
over Egypt. Is that what you want?”5 ; or as Arafat’s response to Clinton that Hamas would be in
power tomorrow if he insists to ratify the Camp David plan in 2001; or as Prince Bandar bin
Sultan the Saudi monarchy’s most articulate spokesman who often reminds American officials
that if they press too hard, the likely alternative to the regime is not Jeffersonian democracy but a
Taliban-style theocracy.”6
4
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a011102algeriaelection
Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom, Liberal democracy at Home and Abroad, W. W. Norton & Company,
New York, 2003, p. 119
6
Ibid., p. 120
5
4
B. Nature of the Shari’ah
According to these experiences in various Muslim’s countries, it is clear that neither
liberal democratic system nor western law products are formidable challenges, instead of that,
the Muslims adopted them. To this extent, why the many Muslim countries seem to have no
problem of ratifying the western legal system? Is the western legal system such as according to
the Egyptian dusture part of the developing Shari’ah?
Let us take a look little deeply within internal mechanism of the basic frame thought of
Islamic legal system beyond the appearance phenomena of their receptivity to the works of
outside of their own. What circumstances make them to have no problem with their ratification
of western legal system?
Islam is a religion dealing not only with theology but also Shari’ah, the Islamic legal
system that governs relationship between human and God (fiqh ‘ibadah), among humanity (fiqh
mu’amalah), and also governs political system (fiqh siyasah). These compositions make the
nature of this religion inseparable from the political engagements. In contrast to the West, the
move of western secularism is toward separation of religion and politics. John Esposito
regretfully states: “Secular presuppositions which inform our academic disciplines and outlook
on life, our Western secular worldview, have been a major obstacle to our understanding and
analysis of Islamic politics and have contributed to a tendency to reduce Islam to
fundamentalism and fundamentalism to religious extremism.”7
The development of the Shari’ah, went together with the development of social
interactions since it was during Prophet Muhammad to the later eras including today, and was
accumulated into Islamic jurisprudences (fiqh). To the western world’s view, John Esposito tries
to invite them to an accurate understanding of Muslim world, he states: “The separation of
religion and politic overlooked the fact that religious traditions were established and developed
in historical, political, social and economic contexts. Their doctrine and laws were conditioned
by these contexts. This was certainly true in the history of Islam and even more so in the belief of
many Muslims.”8
To this extent, history witnessed the phenomenology of Muslim world often has a gap
between the nature of religion and Western secularism. John Esposito further states: “The postEnlightenment tendency to define religion as a system of belief restricted to personal of private
life, rather than as a way of life, has seriously hampered our ability to understand the nature of
Islam and many other world’s religion.”9
As a little interesting notion for the presentation of this paper is the tune in between the
terms Khalacha for law in Judaism and Shariah for law in Islam, let this paper also looks into the
7
John Esposito, Op Cit., P.10
Ibid., p. 11
9
Loc Cit.
8
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illustration on what the nature of Islam has in common with the nature of Judaism in the context
of facing the liberal system.
Islam etymologically is a Semitic word. In Arabic it is rooted from the word aslama or
yuslimu means to submit; Islaaman or Islam means a total submission. In Hebrew, the infinitive
l’salem means to pay off; shalom in Hebrew or salam in Arabic means peace; metsalem in
Hebrew means self submission or surrender. Terminologically, Islam according to Professor
Mahmoud Saltout, former president of Al-Azhar University, is ’aqidatun wa shari‘atun
(theology and law). From now on this paper uses Arabic terms, ‘aqedah for theology and
shari‘ah for Islamic law.
Language derivation of the Arabic word shari‘ah for Islamic law is the same derivation
process of the Hebrew word Khalacha for Jewish law. Khalacha from the Hebrew infinitive
lalehet or in simple present tent holech means to walk. Were the address of PSTTI-UI located in
Arab country, it would be at 4 Shari’ Salemba Raya. Shari’ means street, road, avenue, way.
Thus, both Khalacha for Jewish and Shari’ah for Islam for their adherents are more than just
merely law, they are way of life, the way to walk their life. That sense, these laws are more
internalized within their adherents, and not just imposed upon them like other laws such as
government law, etc. Understanding this nature is what John Esposito’s concern: “The postEnlightenment tendency to define religion as a system of belief restricted to personal of private
life, rather than as a way of life, has seriously hampered our ability to understand the nature of
Islam and many other world’s religion.”
The constitutional and democratic-like system of government used to be the running
system during leadership of Prophet Muhammad and four his successors, caliphs Abu Bakar,
Umar, Usman, and Ali. Afterward the system changed into monarchy. The early Islamic state
establishment was consisted of people among the Quraishites including Prophet Muhammad and
the people of Yathsrib. They are constituted of a political unit (ummatan wahidatan) distinct
from the rest of other peoples, the moving nomad society, the Bedouin.
According to Justin Wintle, Muhammad emigrates from Mecca to Yatsrib (today is
Madinah) at the beginning of September 622. Afterward, either in the year of 623 or towards
the end of the preceding year, the constitution of Madina as also known as the ‘Covenant of
Yatsrib’ [its translation is attached to this paper] was established ”…historically, the constitution
becomes an important model for Islamic diplomacy, and also the first exercise in Islamic
jurisprudence. In immediate terms it embodies the principle of non-aggression and mutual
defense between members of a new confederacy.”10
The constitution was the agreed upon among many parties, the tribes in Yatsrib consist of
Banu ‘Auf, Banu Harith (the Khazrajites), Banu Sa’idah, Banu Jusham, Banu an-Najjar, Banu
Amr ibn Awf, Banu an-Nabeet, Banu al-Aws, Banu Tha’labah, Banu ash-Shuthayba, people of
believers, people of dhimmah, and the newly immigrants from Mecca including Prophet
Muhammad, the president of the country based on that constitution. Please note the parallelism
10
Justin Wintle, The Rough Guide History of Islam, Rough Guide Ltd. London, 2003, pp. 25-26
6
with membership of the US constitution Article one section two: “The House of Representatives
shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and
the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous
branch of the state legislature”
The democratic-like leadership system was still practiced until the era of four Caliphs
after the leadership of Prophet Muhammad. They were elected through shurah (congress) among
respected members of shahabat (companions) which is parallel to modern democratic process.
Afterward, leadership under Muawiyah rulers, marking the change of the governmental system,
that merges into monarchy together with development of the political circumstances and
changes. This system continues to the succeeding monarchs, the Abbasids, the Fatimids, until
lastly the Ottoman Empire that ended in 1919. The Mu’awiyites government system, with its
capital city in Damascus and later in Spain and no longer in Medina, was a result of acculturation
between native Islamic and the Roman bureaucratic tradition, protocol and military system. The
Abbasids Empire with its capital city in Bagdad, had a government system parallel to the
preceding system though they learn from the acculturation between native Islamic and the
Persian bureaucratic system. The less democratic system, deviants from the way as during
Muhammad and four his successors era, went on until in the gate of modern era under Ottoman
empire. Now in the modern era, together with the development of western enlightenment, many
Muslims feel to back home to their root of early shurah system which to a greater extent
cognates to the modern democracy. Besides the fact that the system was practiced during the
early Islamic era, Muslims also found several scriptural bases for the shurah system, the
democratic-like system, such as the Qur’an 3: 159; 42: 38, etc.
Moreover, Islam is like other western religions, Judaism and Christianity. Most of its law
was constructed by the power of human intellect, a vast Islamic intellectual heritage on Islamic
jurisprudences in many different schools of law as a picture of encounters among classical
jurists. These detailing laws do not technically appear in the Qur’an, rather they resemble of the
moral law of the Qur’an. Just like Khalacha, the Jewish law, is constructed through rabbinic
encounter among Tannaim Rabbis in the Mishnah, the main source of Jewish law, and among
Amoraim Rabbis in the Talmud, the wide interpretations to the Mishnah. In Christianity, most of
its law was not constructed from decrees of Jesus who did not explain detailing technical law
such as issues on the economy, political treaty, family law, sexuality, etc., rather he gave moral
suggestions that were applicable to all that issues.
Muslim jurists, after having learned many textual analysis and life experience of the
prophet, concluded several principles of extracting law from the text and the nature of the
shari’ah namely usul al-fiqh (principle of the Islamic jurisprudence). One among the principles
is al-hukmu yataghayaru bi taghayuri l-amkan wa l-azman wa l-ahwal (law always change in
accordance with circumstances of places, times, and situations). This principle remains
impressed until today in all Muslim countries’ legal systems. A country like Indonesia and many
others also hold the classical principle of law al-mukhafadhatu bi l-qadiimi S-Salih wa l-ahdu bi
l-jadidi l-aSlah (to maintain the old which is good, and to ratify the new when it is better). These
principles add a base of flexibility and receptivity that goes beyond the Muslim countries’
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attitude of ratifying many laws and system of non their native product, such as positive law in
Egypt, Indonesia, Sudan, Malaysia, and many others, as well as liberal democratic system.
This internal frame of legal mechanism is a background of the development of the
Islamic legal system, the shari’ah, that was sourced not only from native Islamic but also from
many other influences, including western heritage with certain modification to meet the ruuhu ttashri’ (the basic Islamic moral law), as what John Esposito sees the phenomena of modern
Muslim states whose pattern of development was heavily influenced by Western secular
paradigms or models. In fact this shari’ah frame is not the only experience of receptivity with
the modern western heritage, but also with many other external values from everywhere and
whenever. The classical history witnessed the massive adoptions of Greek and Indian wisdom
into Arabic during Harun al-Rashed ruling of the Abbasid caliphate is one among the many
proofs. The wisdom later collaborated with native Islamic values and developed into ‘ilmu lkalam (science of Islamic theology); ‘ilmu l-mantiq (science of Islamic logic); and uSul al-fiqh
(principles of Islamic jurisprudence) that gives birth to many mazhab (Islamic school of laws)
both within sunny and shiah.
C. Culture and Degree of Liberal Receptivity
Beside people’s ideology of the country that has been a direct impact to the choice of
social system including degree of receptivity to the liberal democracy, authoritarianism,
autocracy, theocracy, feudalism, etc., culture has played an important role in determining mass
psychology as a background of their value choices. It can be traced from a mass tendency to
certain arts model, clothing fashions, kinds of music that develop in a country. These tendencies
can be used to measure the way of thinking and civilizing themselves within society, which is
also a background of their attitude toward democracy and secularism.
Let us take attention to not in Arab lands, but Southeast Asia where the most Muslims of
today’s world live, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. They
speak their own languages, not Arabic, with multi world cultural influence including Western
and Middle Eastern. Girls wearing headscarf and blue jeans are very common on Indonesian
streets. Gamelan, the native Javanese music, used to be an instrument to spreading Islam in the
early era by wali songo (nine sufists the founding fathers of Islam in Indonesia), now become
antique as people can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6bWBfE2aC8 This native
culture today is replaced by western styles of music: pop, hard and slow rock, jazz blues,
Indonesian rap, etc. with contentions of lyric song heavily both Islamic and liberal secular
teachings,
such
as
click
or
copy
and
paste
in
this
website
link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ0hWmnFbS4
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2CBUllVCoA&feature=related
Indonesia since 13th century (if not before) was introduced to Islam by Arab merchants
through Indian Gujarat coast to western and middle part of Indonesia. Christianity was brought
to Indonesia by Dutch colony in 17th century did not gain that much ground, because the colony
is not of better image according the people’s psychology of that country than that of peasantry
8
merchants from Gujarat Indian coast, as also similar to that in Malaysia. Besides as Islam came
earlier, as usual, when the area is already existed Islam, it is harder to be Christianized,
compared to those areas where Islam is not quite existed yet such as most of eastern part of
Indonesia like East Timor, West Irian Jaya, Ambon, etc.
In contrast to the phenomena of Northern Africa, with the rapid change from
Christendom to becomes Muslimdom. Islam was born in 610 CE when Muhammad received first
revelation, marking the beginning of his prophethood. In 622 CE he emigrated to Yatsrib from
Mecca and established country of Yatsrib, now is Madinah. In 632 CE Prophet Muhammad died.
Less then a century later, 711 CE, Islam spread up widely under the leadership of Muawiyah
Empire. Throughout Mediterranean countries in Northern Africa up to Southern European
country of Spain which are previously Christian lands, suddenly became darul Islam, including
Algeria the country just fundamentally Islam until today that traceable with its Islamic base
party, FIS, swept both local elections in 1990 and the legislative elections in 1991.
When the area is already introduced to Islam, it is usually difficult to change it into
Christian unless by dragging them out completely like the experience in Spain in 1492 CE.
Dutch colony in Indonesia from 17th to 20th centuries did not have capability to do as the
crusader did in Spain because Islam was already well established for hundreds of years and was
mature, beside the number of Dutch army much smaller than the number of Muslim guerillas.
The area that easier to be introduced to Christianity today possibly where Islam is not quite there
yet such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, etc. compared to, let’s say Malaysia,
Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, etc., it is harder if people cannot say it impossible.
The same case was applicable to Islam that has been harder to be introduced in the area
where the Christianity is solid such as Philippine, European countries before the enlightenment.
After the West became secularized and tends to be away from Church, no religion in public
school curriculum, and so on, there Islam rapidly spreads out especially today. Record from
Islamic Center of New York the average number of weekly converter to become Muslim every
Friday after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 is fourth fold compared to that before the tragedy
happened, as similar to that in Islamic center in England and probably also in other places.
According to recent report of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, that for the first
time in history, there are more Muslims in the world than Roman Catholics.
That possibly through the tragedy of September the 11th, Islam had sparked people’s
attention with the help from mass mediums such as CNN, Fox News, BBC England, news
papers, etc., make people were become attracted toward various different psychological
responses including hateful, sympathetic, more love, curiosity about Islam, etc. from level of
individual to institutions including governments. Sample for this attraction is during post 2001
more courses dealing with Islam, jihad, Middle East, and the likes are attracting and more
students take these courses in various universities in the West. The Center for Middle Eastern
Studies of Harvard University also has benefited from this historic tragedy. It received good
amount of government funding to research Islam in the West specifically for the phenomena of
post September the 11th
9
Acculturations between Islamic and local cultures have been coloring Muslims’
appearances in difference places and eras with difference appearances. Gamelan instrument as a
tool for the Wali Songo to spread Islam in early time in Indonesia is an acculturation among
Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. The strength of Muawiyah Empire was colored by
acculturation between Islamic and Roman protocol and bureaucratic traditions. Similarly the
powerfulness of Abbasid Empire was a result of acculturation between Islamic and Persian
military traditions. In term of intellectual heritage in this era was a result of acculturation
between Islamic, ancient Greek, and Indian philosophy, which resemble into Islamic wisdom in
the baitul hikmah (the house of wisdom) that was destroyed by Caesar Hula Ku Khan of Tartar.
Now, Muslims acculturate themselves with global cultures including secularism.
Indonesian music as samples taken from the website above is an example for this global
acculturation. Similarly, the phenomenology of growing Islam in the West as is discussed above
is an example of today’s global acculturation.
The internal mechanism of the Islamic shari’ah as is discussed earlier, together with this
phenomenology of Asia, Middle East, and the West gives hint that Islam in nature is livable in
and cognate to a secular system with freedom of speech and democratic environment, various
kind of music, etc, and not as what Professor Abou el-Fadl’s claim that, for Islam, democracy
poses a formidable challenge. No, it is not.
10