Democracy and Religion

Abstract

Have we learned that democracy, with everything in any way associated with it, is nothing other than stupidity, scandal, dissoluteness, robbery, theft, and murder? (August Vilmar, nineteenth-century German theologian) The bitter and venomous taste of Western liberal democracy, which the United States has hypocritically been trying to portray through its propaganda as a healing remedy, has hurt the body and soul of the Islamic Ummah and burned the hearts of Muslims. (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran) This chapter discusses the compatibility of liberal democratic institutions and religious beliefs. Before exploring this issue, however, it is necessary to define the term religious . We construe it to mean “Devoted to religion: exhibiting the spiritual or practical effects of religion, following the requirements of a religion; pious, godly, devout.” Thus, religious implies more than just belief in a god. A religious person's beliefs affect the way she thinks and acts in both her private and public life. A Deist believes in a god and might, therefore, think of himself as religious. However, he will not pray to his god nor be guided by any strictures laid down by it. His decisions regarding what is good for himself and his community will be unaffected by his belief in a supreme being who created the universe. A Deist is thus not religious in the way we employ this term.