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6/27/2008 8:52:25 AM
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Introduction:
A discussion is presented of the principles of democracy and how political process in European and American versions of democracies is influenced by religious beliefs and identities. Pakistan with a diffused Islamic ideology is an evolving democracy and the article traces a history of past three plus decades to show how fragile its constitution is. It suits successive dictators and elected rulers to conform to the political Islam imbedded in the Islamic trilogy of scripture/literature - Quran, Hadith and Shariah. Pakistanis genetically are non-Arabs and they are struggling with absolute conformity demanded by the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam enshrined with medieval Arab tribal norms. For Pakistan to be a mature democracy like America and West a requirement is to struggle with the impact of modernization, rationalism and scientific thinking on a large scale to get away from the medieval world of political Islam.
Principals of Democracy
Democracy is a political ideology theoretically independent of religion. Democracy means a government of, by and for the people for most democratic nations of the world but not for Pakistan. Democracy by definition is secular in nature as it respects people of all religious and non-religious (atheists and agnostics) beliefs as long as they do not infringe on rights of non-believers and as long as they do not subvert constitution of the nation.
In democracy the constitution of the nation voted in by majority of people is supreme and the laws of the land conform to the constitution of the nation. The primary job of the government is to maintain law and order and uphold the constitution of the land. Typically, the government is divided into three equal and independent branches and each branch is required to respects independence of other two and provides checks and balance. Structurally, three independent institutions - the executive body (head of the government and his ministers), the legislators (parliament of elected representatives) and the judiciary (judges, law enforcement authorities, etc) - ensure that fundamental rights of all citizens - any religious persuasion and culture - are protected as stated in the constitution.
Democracies, by definition and structure, continue to evolve with changing internal and international political environment. Britain"s parliamentary democratic monarchy is one of the oldest. The French Revolution catalyzed democratization of many European nations - France, Germany, Italy, etc - by discarding political domination of Roman Catholic Church and adopting secular political norms starting fifteenth century. Democratic or not they continued to practice anti-Semitic social and political policies; they also colonized most of globe to expand economically.
Democracy, Faith and Identities
Democracies recognize a place for God in life and that religious faith is for personal salvation. In democracy theoretically religious interferences in functions of the state are not allowed. Churches, mosques, temples, etc are common places for practicing a faith and authorities responsible for its operations in democratic societies are not allowed by the nation"s laws to subvert the constitution to promote a select set of religious beliefs over all others. Americans and European West takes pride in secular democracies although there are ideological differences.
The Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe had thrived on strong anti-Semitic identities for nearly two thousand years. To escape from the Church domination volatile political movements were born in Europe to establish secular democracies. Strong religious identities were considered a threat to democratic life. The change of attitude may be linked to the French Revolution, when the forces fighting under a universal banner of "liberty, equality and fraternity" were pitted against the Church.
While democratic at home, Europeans were authoritarian imperial rulers in colonies. The colonies were for economic exploitation. Non-Christians were branded pagans for conversion to Christianity. The colonizer"s political policy was to establish universal conformity to Christianity by eliminating weaker natives (for example, North and Latin America, Australia, etc) justified by misapplication of the theory of evolution. In some colonies - Muslim majority lands and Hindu majority India - confronted by strong religious traditions, the imperial powers adopted a policy of least religious interferences and focused on economic exploitation by destroying local industrial infrastructure, managing colonies to supply commodities for establishing robust industrial base at home and turning colonies to potential markets for value added manufactured products.
The pilgrims flocked in search of religious freedom to America in sixteenth century and American Revolution was to assert national identity and to reconcile identity and freedom in a way no country has been able to match. The intimate union of the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty has made America different from European nations - UK, France, Germany, Italy, etc.
The U.S. academia and elites have embraced ideas of French Revolution. American constitution is enshrined with the fundamental individual rights. However, most Americans see no inherent contradiction between maintaining strong identities and the demands of democratic life. In America the right to express one"s identity is seen as fundamental. Exercising such a right is regarded as acting in the best American tradition.
With an end of World War II the demand for cheap labor in developed nations led an influx of Muslims and others from underdeveloped nations. Tens of millions of Muslims immigrated to secular Europe and America to escape from poverty in Islamic fatherlands. In Europe Muslims live in ghettos, which create volatile conflicts as Muslim political opportunists advocate ignoring established social, cultural, economic and political norms of secular nations and start asserting Muslim identities?
Being dependent on energy supplies, the political accommodation of energy rich Muslim majority nations required the West to maintain hegemony over volatile Middle East. Most energy rich nations of Middle East are Islamic dictatorships. Tolerance of dictatorship in Islamic nations by the West has produced a backlash from educated Arab and other Muslims, some of whom like al Qaeda and Taliban have called for and are participating in Jihad against West and Islamic dictators. Terrorism is out growth of the social and political dysfunctions of political Islam.
Starting 1990s the Muslim identity has grown stronger, has become more fundamentalist, and is increasingly contemptuous of "European" identity. Many studies consistently show that efforts to integrate Muslims into society are much less effective in Europe than in America, where identity is much stronger.
In some European nations severe limits are placed on the harmless expression of identity in the public square. European governments refuse to insist that Muslim minorities abide by basic democratic norms. They turn a blind eye toward underage marriage, genital mutilation and honor killings.
The controversy over whether Muslims should be able to wear a veil in public schools underscores the profound difference in attitudes between America and Europe. In Europe, large majorities support a law banning the veil in public schools. In the U.S., students wear the veil in public schools or state colleges largely without controversy.
The logic of the struggle against the fundamentalist Muslim threat may inevitably demand the reassertion of the European national and religious identities that are now threatened. In the years ahead, European leaders, in order to protect freedom and democracy at home, may start sounding more and more like the straight-shooting cowboy, President Bush.
Since the event of 9/11 President Bush frequently mentioned his Christian faith and the combination of religion and nationalism in America is frightening to some. The terrorist attack led America to shift battle ground to Muslim lands. Desperate times call for desperate responses such as America"s War on Terrorism to destabilize select nerve centers - Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan - in the 57 nation Islamic Um"mah with 1.5 billion populations.
Pakistani Politics
Pakistan is an Islamic Republic and unlike in secular democracies the state allows religion - Islam - to dictate its mode of governance. Political Islam requires believers to submit to the authority of the trilogy of Islamic scripture/literatures enshrined with medieval Arab tribal norms. The specter of on-going political wrangling is exposing the cracks in the politics associated with the implementation of political Islam - dictatorial, if not fascists - and the fragile constitution of Pakistan.
Immediately after the creation of Pakistan, some political problems were settled with the military force. The parliament passed the "Objective Resolution" that said ".... the sovereignty lies with Allah or God" in contradiction to established democracies of the world - socialist, capitalist, communists, monarchy, etc - that recognize "the sovereignty lies with people".
The consequence of this fundamental break with established principals of secular democracies has offered a loophole to politicized generals to take over power for personal gains and for benefits of the Military (see, a book "Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan"s Military Economy" by Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, Pluto Press, 2007, ISBN 0745325459). Four dictators have governed Pakistan in the name of Allah during past six decades. The Objective Resolution has been used by the dictators to their advantage; Ayub Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf have claimed that "since the sovereignty lies with God, so He has chosen me to rule over you".
Such outcome is expected from political Islam that allows ambitious politicized generals, elected officials and bureaucrats to disregard constitutional rights of the people. The dictators dominated by political Islam have repeatedly subverted Pakistan"s fragile constitution for personal gains.
In election of 1970 Pakistan voted for a moderate, progressive-looking politician, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Once in power, he strengthened military institutions and used them to weaken, and even destroy, political institutions. He was also the first to amend the Constitution to declare a section of the Muslims of Pakistan (Qadianis) as non-Muslims and for bringing many laws of "religious" nature onto the statute book.
Benazir Bhutto came to power as a result of "movement for restoration of democracy" against the military dictatorship of Gen Zia ul Haq. She conferred "award of democracy" on the military and made "Maulvi" Fazlur Rahman chairman of foreign relations committee. In her first tenure "the Mujahideen" were facilitated to form a government-in-exile at Islamabad while during her second stint "the Taliban" were helped in capturing Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Nawaz Sharif twice followed Bhutto after her failed administrations. Taking full advantage of two-thirds majority in parliament during his second term, Mr. Sharif tried to make "Islamic Shariah" the law of the land and declare himself "the Ameer". He handed over, one by one, civilian departments of the state to the army-men and this infusion of army-men in civilian jobs turned detrimental to his survival when faced with a military coup.
In recently elected parliament, Mr. Sharif - head of a political party PML-N that is a junior coalition partner in present government - is trying to get even with his antagonist Mr. Pervez Musharraf who had over thrown his government eight years ago and sent him in exile to be the fourth dictator of Pakistan. Mr. Sharif was not eligible to contest recent elections. Mr. Sharif wants to restore independent judiciary that is perceived as likely to nullify Mr. Musharraf as the elected president. Mr. Musharraf allegedly conducted sham elections and got elected as President by the last rubber-stamp assembly before it was dissolved.
A problem is during past more than six months of exile the Chief Justice of Pakistan has become politicized. Second problem is that Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Mrs. Bhutto is senior coalition partner of Mr. Sharif in the government and he is not sure if restoring the Chief Justice would politically benefit him. Mr. Zardari is head of PPP with many criminal cases in his past so he couldn"t contest elections. In this political environment thinking along the political Islam dominates and independence of institution of judiciary to sustain a strong constitutional democracy is at stake.
The politicians, the politicized generals - both retired, serving and in charge of the Military Inc - and Mr. Musharraf are preoccupied to exploit the flawed Pakistani democracy for personal gains at the expense of potential for human resources development needed for nation building, strengthening economy and solving internal problems that may lead to a second dismemberment of Pakistan if Islamic terrorist fueled festering insurgency is not defused in tribal areas under control of the al Qaeda and Taliban.
A Way to Future
Islam and the Arabic-speaking world, not to mention Persian Iran, South Asian Muslims of predominantly Indian origin and Indonesian, Malaysian, Philippine and Chinese Muslims of South East Asia and Far Eastern Origin have not yet initiated modernization, rationalism and scientific thinking on a large scale. Before there can be a viable democracy in any of 57 Muslim majority nations of the Um"mah the job - rapid development, social progress, equal rights for women, respect for minorities and other such changes - has to be done. Governments have to enact appropriate laws and adopt necessary structural changes and fundamental policy initiatives. And the work has barely begun. Pakistan is fumbling in its quest for a stable democratic nation.
Like for the West future for South Asian Muslims lies in moving away from a medieval world view, through the renaissance and enlightenment, and into the modern age. In the 1500s and 1600s, Europe and its main two religions - Christianity and Judaism - struggled with the impact of modernization, rationalism and scientific thinking. They came to terms with the challenge of new ideas and rekindled an interest in ancient pagan Greece and Rome. Despite much bloodshed and repression, they found a way to manage these contradictions. James Carroll in a book, "Constantine"s Sword" - the Church and the Jews: A History (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2001) discloses that the Catholic Church in 1962 at the Vatican Council meeting declared that Jews are not enemies. South Asian Muslims have to cultivate a similar internal thrust and find a way to get away from contradictions that have defined their identity.
One possible solution for Pakistan"s political problems is that its ruling elites have to shed a dependency on Saudi Arabia and American financial handouts that come with politicized general renting its expensive to maintain bloated armed forces to these nations essentially Muslim killing Muslim for blood money. The ruling elites should realize that political Islam demanding submission to the trilogy of Islamic scriptures instills a mindset of servitude to Saudi Monarchy, a dictatorship from the desert. They should empower women and mentally cross the line to get away from the Saudi desert to accept the value system of secular humanism.
For inner peace, Muslims of South Asia should acknowledge Indian heritage and cultivate a mindset that they are neither from Saudi dunes nor from central and north Eurasia. South Asian Muslims are from agriculturally lush plains and tribal rain forest of Indian subcontinent with a rich heritage in culture of ancient Vedas, as evident from architectural finds at Mohenjodaro, Harappa and ruins at Taxila.
European Christians have acknowledged its heritage in ancient Greco-Roman traditions and culture. Greco-Romans didn"t shed Christian faith for acknowledging its ancient heritage. South Asian Muslims too don"t have to lose their basic religious beliefs unrelated to political Islam for acknowledging heritage in ancient Vedic culture.
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