CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

Clash of Civilizations

Clash of Civilizations

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Muslim world, more than ever exposed to social change intensified by the globalization process which has become proffered field of observation and analysis. Researchers are looking more specifically on the relationship between traditional and modern political Islam and democracy, while for local actors; the situation is a breeding ground of unprecedented political and social experiences. The debate on Islam and democracy is, since the rise of Islamist movements, score of researchers and observers who studied whether Islam can appropriate, accept or tolerate democracy in its Western or if it can invent its own model, a model from its political and social development. This debate is very busy and crucial issues in Muslim societies not from today but from the rise of Islamism and is undoubtedly one of their political histories in the twentieth century.

On the other hand, the concept of democracy is integral part of modernity and was introduced in the Muslim world in the late nineteenth century through the modernist elite in contact with European culture (France, England, Russia). In Islamic countries, the claims of the rule of law, parliamentary, social participation and freedom of opinion ranged already from Islam during the revolution of 1906-1911, which has provided the country a constitution, hitherto non-existent in the Muslim world (Abo-Kazleh, 2006).

No wonder that the question arises in these terms in the Muslim world. The social and political actors who struggle for power and for control of the cultural orientation of their society are positioned in effect with respect to issues of this debate. Advocates of "compatibility" aspire to a democratic political system whose legitimacy would preserve the Islamic cultural and ethical dimension after Islam while having a broader social base. Their opponents, who say Islam incompatible with democracy, is seeking to disqualify the ability of Islam to tolerate a political system ensuring the fundamental rights of citizens, or to reject democracy as a political project, to maintain or strengthen a authoritarian religious power (Bsoul, 2010).

This same dichotomy divides Western intellectuals and researchers sometimes taking sides in the debate. Some refer to democracy as the emblem and product of the West, and Islam as a religion frozen in a-temporal in nature and incompatible with modern political one , others believe that Islam is also a historical construction and as such it can legitimize a democratic system as well as a despotic regime. Western discourse on the relationship between Islam and democracy requires of course to be clarified as to the ideological logic which presides and representations of Islam and Muslim societies that underpin it. Contributions are increasing in this area. The problems inherent in unambiguous definitions of polysemous concepts as "democracy" and "pluralism" has been thoroughly analyzed by Jean Leca and many precautions to address the issue of democracy in the Arab and Muslim world have been exposed by Ghassan Salameh in his introduction to Democracy Without Democrats. Finally, critical reading by Jean-Claude Vatin of the same work, explained the essence of what ...