Consultation and Community: The Relationship of Islam and Democracy

Item

Title

Consultation and Community: The Relationship of Islam and Democracy

Description

Samuel Huntington argued in Clash of Civilizations (1993) that Western and Islamic worlds would clash in the new post-Cold War era due to Islam's resistance to western liberal democracy and its values. Generalizations such as these are one of the many reasons why westerners are both anxious and attracted to the Middle East; however, the generalizations are founded on a selective analysis of evidence. This paper will demonstrate that Islam is not hostile towards democracy. The ideal Islamic State, as well as the central values of Islam are quite democratic in their nature. Empirical evidence rebukes Huntington's thesis, however, research on Islamic political thought is somewhat lacking in western scholarly circles. Instead of focusing on how the U.S. can make Islamic governments in its own image, research should be directed at understanding the political values of Islam and how they can be incorporated within a democratic framework.

Michael Welsh

Contributor

Keene State College

Creator

Greg K. Howard

Date

2017-10-11

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12088/8097

Subject

Political Science

Type

Presentation

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets

AEC 2017 School of Sciences and Social Sciences

Site pages

School of Sciences and Social Sciences