THE $64 QUESTION

Can Islam have a democratic future?: It has a glorious past and present. (Surin Pitsuwan, 19/6/2003, Online Opinion)

What you see in the Middle East is not development. What you see in the Middle East is modernity. Modernity you can buy. If you have the money you can buy all the gadgets of the latest invention, but there is very little development. That is the distinction. But in Malaysia and Indonesia you see greater efforts for human resource development, a process that forces a country to be more open. The society is diversifying. Therefore there is room for participation, access and for give and take within the same Islamic society.

I once asked President Khatami of Iran, a Shi'ite, this hypothetical question: There are two men. One lives in a closed society. Every minute of his life
is prescribed. He has to follow the rules of Islam. He has to pray five times a day. He has to fast. He has to pay his alms - his zakat. He has to do everything prescribed by the law, government, regime and police.

There is another Muslim who lives in an open society, with all the choices to be bad. Yet he remains good. He prays five times a day. He fasts. He pays his alms and does everything that the religion requires of him. Which is the better Muslim? President Khatami clapped his knees and laughed. He said, "You from south-east Asia are better than many Muslims around here".

My point is that Islam can inspire you to become a good democrat. Islam can also inspire a society to become a democracy. It depends on various factors that have to somehow work in order to propel that process of democratisation forward. [...]

I think the Muslims are just like any other human beings, aspiring to move forward but frustrated by the present circumstances that they find
themselves in. I think you should feel sympathy with some of the problems they are facing.

We're all sympathetic but Mr. Pitsuwan assumes a bit too blithely that every religion can form a suitable basis for democracy. To date it appears that only Judaism and Christianity, and conspicuously not
Islam, are reliable foundations. That's not to say it can't be, but it has work to do first. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 23, 2003 5:51 PM