Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition


Just noticed this one.

Any discussion of Islam and Democracy must begin with some definition of these two words, both of unstable and therefore explosive content.


By Islam one can mean both a religion, the equivalent of Christianity, and a civilization, the equivalent of Christendom. In this sense the word denotes a phenomenon of extraordinary richness, variety, and complexity; of more than 14 centuries of history; 1.3 billion people; 50-some states, about which it is very difficult to generalize.


The question is often asked: is Islam compatible with democracy? This is of course part of a larger question: is religion compatible with democracy?


One may ask the same question regarding other religions. There are two ways to approach this question: the historical and the theoretical.[...]


The ancestry of the Ba'ath may be found not in the Middle East, not in Islam, not in Arabism but in the Nazi Party and the Communist Party, two sources of inspiration which mingle very well in Ba'athist practice - the party as part of the apparatus of government, concerned more particularly with indoctrination, surveillance and repression, and failing every test of government except survival.[...]