Islamic democracy

There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship between the religion of Islam and democracy (the form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state and democracy) among Islamic political theorists and other thinkers, the general Muslim public, and Western authors.

Many Muslim scholars have argued that traditional Islamic notions such as ''shura'' (consultation), ''maslaha'' (public interest), and '' ʿadl'' (justice) justify representative government institutions which are similar to Western democracy, but reflect Islamic rather than Western liberal values. Still others have advanced liberal democratic models of Islamic politics based on pluralism and freedom of thought. Some Muslim thinkers have advocated secularist views of Islam.

A number of different attitudes regarding democracy are also represented among the general Muslim public, with polls indicating that majorities in the Muslim world desire a religious democracy where democratic institutions and values can coexist with the values and principles of Islam, seeing no contradiction between the two.

Traditional political concepts

Quran

Muslim democrats, including Ahmad Moussalli (professor of political science at the American University of Beirut), argue that concepts in the Quran point towards some form of democracy, or at least away from despotism. These concepts include ''shura'' (consultation), ''ijma'' (consensus), ''al-hurriyya'' (freedom), ''al-huqquq al-shar'iyya'' (legitimate rights). For example, ''shura'' (Al Imran – Quran 3:159, Ash-Shura – Quran 42:38) may include electing leaders to represent and govern on the community's behalf. Government by the people is not therefore necessarily incompatible with the rule of Islam, whilst it has also been argued that rule by a religious authority is not the same as rule by a representative of God. This viewpoint, however, is disputed by more traditional Muslims. Moussalli argues that despotic Islamic governments have abused the Quranic concepts for their own ends: "For instance, shura, a doctrine that demands the participation of society in running the affairs of its government, became in reality a doctrine that was manipulated by political and religious elites to secure their economic, social and political interests at the expense of other segments of society," (In ''Progressive Muslims'' 2003).

Sunni Islam

Deliberations of the Caliphates, most notably the Rashidun Caliphate, were not democratic in the modern sense rather, decision-making power lay with a council of notable and trusted companions of Muhammad and representatives of different tribes (most of them selected or elected within their tribes).

In the early Islamic Caliphate, the head of state, the Caliph, had a position based on the notion of a successor to Muhammad's political authority, who, according to Sunnis, was ideally elected by the people or their representatives, as was the case for the election of Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Al Khattab, Uthman, and Ali as Caliph. After the Rashidun Caliphs, later Caliphates during the Islamic Golden Age had a much lesser degree of collective participation, but since "no one was superior to anyone else except on the basis of piety and virtue" in Islam, and following the example of Muhammad, later Islamic rulers often held public consultations with the people in their affairs.

The legislative power of the Caliph (or later, the Sultan) was always restricted by the scholarly class, the ''ulama'', a group regarded as the guardians of Islamic law. Since the law came from the legal scholars, this prevented the Caliph from dictating legal results. Sharia rulings were established as authoritative based on the ''ijma'' (consensus) of legal scholars, who theoretically acted as representatives of the Ummah (Muslim community). After law colleges (''madrasas'') became widespread beginning with the 11th and 12th century CE, a student often had to obtain an '' ijaza-t al-tadris wa-l-ifta'' ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in order to issue legal rulings. In many ways, classical Islamic law functioned like a constitutional law.

Bangladeshi Islamic scholar Khandaker Abdullah Jahangir said in a scholarly interview about Islam and democracy that,

Salafi view

Salafism as an ideology and movement has close ties to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy from its beginning in the 18th century has partnered with Wahhabism as military tool and ideological support to their monarchical rule. The ruling monarchy uses their scholars (termed salafis, wahhabis, and Najdis) to defend their authoritarian rule and subjugate the masses. Because the Saudi monarchs perceive democracy and the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to their rule, they have occasionally used extremist Salafi scholars (e.g. madkhalis) to oppose democracy at home and in other Arab states, and claim that democracy is haram and even shirk. For example, after the election of Mohamed Morsi