Abstract
With the expansion of Islamism, a wave of Islam phobia was launched by western Orientalists and intensified subsequent to September 11 Attacks. Theoretically, the subject of adaptation and compatibility or contrast between Islam and democracy has drawn the attention of academic circles. Using a comparative and analytical research procedure, the current article seeks to provide an answer to this question: In the area of Adaptation and Contrast Theories, what is the nature of the relationship between Islam and democracy? The research’s hypothesis is that: from Contrast perspective, adaptation between democracy and Islam is not possible due to ontological and epistemological differences. In contrast, given the existing rational and democratic potentials within the framework of genuine Islamic fundamentals, democratic empirical examples such as democratic attitudes and demands in Islam world and democratic governance in the Middle East countries and Islam world, adaptation oriented parties believe in the existence of contextualized democracy within the framework of Islam. Using a critical reappraisal, it must be noted that, in spite of some deficits, Adaptation is more tenable, while Contrast and Essentialism are not sufficiently tenable due to some causes including failure to make a distinction between Islam’s basic fundamentals and history of Islam, the performance of authoritarian regimes and radical Islamists, universalization of liberal-secular democracy discourse and its combination with western ethnic chauvinism and propaganda of Islam phobia and defamation to Islam.
Highlights
From the late 1960s onwards, with the decline of nationalism and socialism, Islamism as a political ideology was promulgated quickly in the Arab world
Adaptation Theory In Adaptation approach, the prevailing belief is that there is no conflict between Islam and democracy, Islam and democracy can coexist in same society
Contrast approach places itself under the category of essentialism, and alleges that there is an inherent incompatibility between Islam and democracy, political Islamists cannot even behave democratically
Summary
From the late 1960s onwards, with the decline of nationalism and socialism, Islamism as a political ideology was promulgated quickly in the Arab world. With the expansion of Islamism in the West on the one hand, an anti-Islam and “Islam phobia” wave was launched, which this responsive action was exacerbated especially after the September 11 Attacks The origins of these types of reactions were mainly Western Orientalists, Contrast-oriented and essentialist thinkers such as Bernard Lewis, Elie Kedourie, Samuel Huntington, and Francis Fukuyama. Investigate and analyze political Islam and its relationship with democracy is a necessity due to the following reasons: 1-The sparse nature of the literature on critical assessment of contrast approach and Clash of Civilizations and their major focus on mostly theoretical and less comparative/inferential analysis of the research subject. 4-The paucity of the resources and research performed with a comparative approach and the views held by leading theorists on the two approaches including Adaptation and contrast, and at the same time provide empirical instances and surveys conducted regarding compatibility between Islam and democracy Investigate and analyze political Islam and its relationship with democracy is a necessity due to the following reasons: 1-The sparse nature of the literature on critical assessment of contrast approach and Clash of Civilizations and their major focus on mostly theoretical and less comparative/inferential analysis of the research subject. 2-The significance of the issues such as critical assessment of the Clash of Civilizations and contrast approach to deal with intellectual-political challenges academically, Iran-phobia and Islam phobia and the Western countries soft war against Islam, 3-The significant lack of attention paid to empirical quantitative studies in the form of the thesis and books on critical approach to the Clash of Civilizations. 4-The paucity of the resources and research performed with a comparative approach and the views held by leading theorists on the two approaches including Adaptation and contrast, and at the same time provide empirical instances and surveys conducted regarding compatibility between Islam and democracy
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