Islam and Democracy in South Asia

The Case of Bangladesh

Md Nazrul Islam, Md Saidul Islam, Nazrul Islam Md, Saidul Islam Md

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030429089
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030429096
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica asiatica

Grounded in the Weberian tradition, Islam and Democracy in South Asia: The Case of Bangladesh presents a critical analysis of the complex relationship between Islam and democracy in South Asia and Bangladesh. The book posits that Islam and democracy are not necessarily incompatible, but that the former has a contributory role in the development of the latter. Islam came to Bengal largely by Sufis and missionaries through peaceful means and hence a moderate form of this religion got rooted in the society. Both militant Islam and militant secularism are equal threats to democracy and pluralism. Like democracy, political Islam has many faces. Political Islam adhering to democratic norms and practices, what the authors call "democratic Islamism," unlike "militant Islamism," is not anti-democratic. The book shows that the suppression of democracy and human rights creates avenues for the consolidation of militant Islamism, orthodox Islam, and "Islamic" terrorism, while the "fair play" of democracy results in the decline of anti-democratic form of political Islam.

© The Author(s) 2020

M. N. Islam, M. S. IslamIslam and Democracy in South Asiahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42909-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. Islam and Democracy in South Asia: An Introduction

Md Nazrul Islam¹ and Md Saidul Islam²

(1)

Department of Political Studies, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh

(2)

Division of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, Jurong, Singapore

Md Saidul Islam

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

ReligionIslamDemocracySouth AsiaBangladesh

End Abstract

Religion and politics have been inextricably interrelated since the dawn of human civilization (Weber 1964; Aronoff 1984). Throughout the ancient and medieval ages, religion played a dominant role in politics and society. However, sometime in the late fifteenth century and at the end of the medieval age, scholars such as Machiavelli (2009) advocated for a secular political and social thought and a separation of religion from state and politics. Since then, the influence of religion in the European political and social landscapes started to diminish. Social thinkers of the nineteenth century—Comte (1858), Spencer (2005a, b), Durkheim (1995), Weber (1964, 2003), Marx and Engels (1964)—all believed that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the advent of the industrial society (Norris and Inglehart 2011). The European Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, borrowing from secular ideas and philosophy in political and social thoughts, influenced these scholars to make such predictions. However, empirical evidences paint a different picture.

Religion continued to remain a dominant social institution, even in the industrialized societies such as the United States in generating, for instance, social justice movements. The emergence of various socioreligious phenomena in recent years has reawakened scholarly interest in religious-based political and social conflict. These phenomena include Solidarity Poland; the dissolution of the Soviet Empire; various South American, South African, and South Asian liberation movements; the Christian Right in the United States; Al-Qaeda; and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as also referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or simply Islamic State (IS) (Gill 2008). Between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, most of the nation-states that embraced liberal democracy evolved, through Western secular ideas and thoughts, not only as a political system but also as social discourse. From the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, the waves and reverse waves of democratization were witnessed (Huntington 1991). Following World War II, and particularly since the 1970s, the newly independent countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which emerged largely as a result of nationalist movements, stepped toward democratic systems of governance. Huntington (1991) called these movements “the third wave of democratization.”

A number of these newly born independent nation-states are embedded in Muslim religious ideology, and their societies are predominantly influenced by religious precepts and practices. Throughout the ages, Islamic religious traditions seem to have become a powerful factor not only in the private sphere but also in the public domain in these societies. According to a research conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, Islam is the official religion in 27 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.¹ Many Muslim countries have adopted Western secular democracy, but at the same time, they have constitutionally recognized the preference of Islam: Islam has been declared the state religion in a number of Muslim countries, such as Bangladesh (Ghosh 1993; Riaz 2004) and Malaysia (Means 1978; Bakar 1981). Several aspects of Islamic laws about family, marriage, and inheritance exist as per religious doctrines. Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan are strictly following Islamic Shari’ah law, while countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, and Tunisia, which are following Western democracy, still have religious undercurrent in their politics and societies. In many Muslim countries, religious political parties, such as Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) in Malaysia, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (Prosperous Justice Party, PKS) in Indonesia, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh and Pakistan are both politically and socially strong. Therefore, since the second half of the twentieth century, religion, Islam in particular, has caught the attention of the international community, especially among scholars of social sciences. Islamic theory, practice, and its relationship with the Western discourses particularly with regard to democracy and human rights have come to the fore in debates and discussions among both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars of the world.² More importantly, after the events of 9/11, Islam as a religion has received renewed attention from social scientists. In this sociopolitical context, we have examined the complex intersection of Islam, Islamism,³ and democracy in the world today. Juxtaposing with the broader South Asian context, Bangladesh has been used as an empirical case for this sociological investigation.

Democracy and Islam: Compatible or Contender?

Democracy is a form of governance based on some degree of popular sovereignty and collective decision making (Landman 2005). Indeed, the word “democracy” lacks unanimity as to its definition and meaning. It is an “essentially contested concept” (Gallie 1956:167). Schumpeter (1943), Dahl (1971, 1999), Huntington (1991), Diamond (1992, 1999), Zakaria (1997), Landman (2009, 2013), and others have defined democracy in different ways and measures. Holden (1993), Holmes (1995), Bollen (1993), Mann (1970), Dunleavy and O’Leary (1987), and Macpherson (1977) have dealt with liberal democracy in great detail. These works have helped to illustrate the concept of democracy with its various dimensions and nuances. We have largely focused on liberal democracy in this research.

From the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, as Huntington (1991) notes, humanity had witnessed the waves and reverse waves of democratization in different parts of the world. Following World War II, and particularly since the 1970s, the newly independent countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America opted for democratic governance. Many of these countries preferred the liberal democracy to the traditional authoritarian or feudal forms of governance in order to achieve socioeconomic and political development. Most of the democracies of the present world follow either the British-style parliamentary democracy or the American-style presidential democracy, both of which fall in the category of liberal democracy. Similarly, Bangladesh, from the very outset of its journey as an independent state since 1971, has practiced liberal democracy. It regularly follows the British parliamentary style while occasionally adhering to the American presidential system. In order to understand the relationship between Islam and democracy in Bangladesh in particular and South Asia in general, the emphasis on liberal democracy is significant.

Scholars throughout the world have carried out extensive works on Islam and democracy. Some have engaged in the philosophical and theoretical debate concerning the relationship between Islam and democracy (Gulen 2001; Khan 2002; Ahmad 2003; Khatab and Bouma 2007; Iqbal 2012), while others have focused on the practice of democracy within Islam...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Islam and Democracy in South Asia: An Introduction
• 2. Framework: Religion, Secularism, and Democracy
• 3. Data Collection and Analysis
• 4. Islam and Democracy: A Philosophical Debate
• 5. The Advent of Islam and Growth of Muslim Society in Bengal
• 6. Political Islam in Pre-independent Bangladesh: Puritanism, Muslim Nationalism, and Ethno-Nationalism
• 7. Piety and Politics: Secularization and Islamization in Bangladesh
• 8. Islam, Islamism, and Democracy in Bangladesh
• 9. The “Islam Question” in South Asia: From Militancy to Democratic Islamism
• Back Matter