Power-sharing Islam?

Abstract

This work has ventured to fill a vast gap in contemporary Islamicpolitical thought. By relating relevant basic and secondary sources to contemporarycontexts in different countries, it has attempted to determinethe extent of harmony and discord between Islamic political theory andcurrent praxis. Being the first English-language publication on this subjectinevitably raises the expectations about its scholarly merit.The first paragraph of the introduction highlights the anomalousconsequences of democratization in the Muslim world: reconciliation insome and heightened adversity in others. In principle, democracy can bereconciled with Islamic political thought. The editor then gives an historicaloutline of misconceptions toward the role of democracy in Islamicpolitics, which began with the Crusades and were reaffirmed during theIranian revolution of 1979. Turning to the twentieth century, revivalism,which often has explicit political motivations, could be easily traced tothe collapse of the Islamic caliphate. It has always welcomed ...