Iraq the Model, one of my favorite Iraqi blogsites asks the question "Is Islam compatible with Democracy?" It links to an article here from Free Iraqi.
I think the essential question is any religion compatible with democracy? And how has Christianity or Judaism formulated itself to be compatible with democracy? I don’t think that religion per se lends itself to democracy. In fact USA democracy formulated a separation of church and state. Democracy should be a system that functions to protect individuals from the state, regardless of any religion. Religious tolerance is fundamental to western democracy.
"We don’t need to democratize Islam, as it wasn’t possible with any other religion. We simply need to separate the mosque from the state, and that could be done violently or peacefully depending on the place and the circumstances. So the right question in my mind is, can we separate the mosque from the state? I for one believe it’s very possible, especially in Iraq."
Read the whole thing.
