Islamist attitudes towards democracy: a review of the ideas of Al‐Ghazali, Al‐Turabi and ‘Amara

Abstract

This paper1 is based on a survey of some of the prevailing attitudes towards representative democracy among Arab intellectuals during the period 19851990.2 A main reason for taking 1985 as a starting-point is the fact that a number of events took place in that year which were to have important implications for the political process in Arab countries. On the international level there was the launching of M. Gorbachev's perestroika, which played a role in weakening the legitimacy of Arab ruling regimes who had adopted the Soviet single-party system. In the Arab world itself, there were such important events as the overthrow ot the Numeiri regime in the Sudan (April 1985), followed by an interim period of military rule which paved the way for general elections in April 1986. Another event was the general election which took place in Kuwait (February 1985), in spite of the stresses and strains clouding the political climate in the Emirate, which in turn were primarily due to the repercussions of the Iran-Iraq war. A third relevant event was the local elections in the former North Yemen during that year, and the government's announcement that general elections would be held by 1986. All these events are indicative of the increasing level of interest in democracy permeating a number of Arab societies by 1985. As one leading Arab intellectual put it, these and similar events encouraged the belief that 'there is no louder message today in the Arab world than that of democracy. For democracy is presently being demanded by elites in all the Arab countries'.3 The survey attempted to gauge the applicability of this observation. To what extent did Arab intellectuals and writers contribute to the opening-up of certain Arab regimes? How did these intellectuals address the issues and dilemmas affecting the implementation of democracy in some countries of the Arab region? These questions obviously apply to intellectuals and writers across the political spectrum, be they Marxists, pan-Arabists, nationalists, liberals or Islamists. However, by 1985, these questions appeared to be of special relevance to Islamists, and I shall accordingly focus on them here.