The Ironclad Incompatibility of Democracy and Islam

There’s much talk now about spreading democracy throughout the Arabic cultures, as if such a mission were possible. If one is, say, aiming for 2909, then perhaps there’d be a chance. But now? Impossible. And the reasons are abundantly clear though not quite obvious in the public arena.

Supporters say, look at the strains of Islam that have adopted to democracy, or at how well the Ottoman Empire treated aliens. Is that the empirical proof democracy stands a snowball’s chance in hell in Iraq, or for that matter, Indonesia? The fact is, there has never been anything resembling a democracy, i.e., a relatively free market, run by Islamic values. Never. It takes a perversion of history to believe it to be so.

Turkey, of course, is somewhat of an exception, but is hardly a secularized society, and doesn’t operate a truly free market environment. If it’s an incubator for democracy, the end product isn’t going to be manufactured until we’re all dead and gone.

Forget Wahhabism or Salafism, or Sayyid Qutb. They imbue anti-Western sentiments for sure. But let’s say that Islamic ideology never existed. The obstacle beyond which orthodox and orthoprax Muslims cannot get beyond to embrace democracy is clearly stated in the Qur’an.

See 2:275: "Those that live on usury shall rise up before God like men whom Satan has demented by his touch; for they claim that trading is no different from usury. But God has permitted trading and made usury unlawful."

See 3:130: "Believers, do not live on usury, doubling your wealth many times over. Have fear of God that you may prosper."

You sophists may want to equivocate about what is or what is not usury. But no one has a leg to stand on for denying that the prevailing rate for many, if not most, credit cards constitutes usury. And that the plethora of banks sponsoring such practices are likewise, morally responsible for their actions as "judged" by Allah.

In other words, the Western banking system - call it capitalism if you must - is morally unacceptable to true believing Muslims, no ifs, ands or buts. Those now abiding by Western banking practices do so out of obligation rather than full cultural acceptance. And they’re one fatwa away from embracing out-and-out condemnation of Western capitalism.

Why are the fundamentalists resisting so fervently? Because they’d rather stay poor on Earth and rich in heaven, as prescribed by their Good Book. Unfortunately, the Baathists, and many Sunnis, who America is now attacking in Iraq, were considerably more secularized without having been indoctrinated by Salafism - to which they now must turn to for a response.

The war in Iraq has hardened the Shia’s fundamentalism, stripped the society of its secular veneer, incited the Sunnis to turn to Islamic militancy while abadoning Western fascism (at least it was Western), and turned followers back to the basics of Qur’anic living.

Forget the notion that the country will split into 3. America has already, regardless of what happens from here on out, reversed Iraq’s progress to the kind of Westernization required for true democracy by many generations. You’d be a fool to believe otherwise.