by Rami Mahmoud Elsawah
Democracy, Democracy, Democracy…the word that is being thrown around all too often these days. It is being sold as it would be on a late night TV infomercial. The Ginsu knife set you absolutely need…or the lettuce spinner that you just cannot live without. It is the miracle cure to every nation’s problems…It is the system which will set you free. I’m sorry to burst your bubble folks …but democracy is a failed institution. Modern democracy is just another of many ways of putting to practice the all too famous ideology of ‘The powerful control the weak’…and it is on sale now wherever available.
Let us face the clear facts about our democratic nations today…they are ruled by money, NOT the people. Democracy, and its self proclaimed fantasy of ‘Power to the People’ is no more a façade than the figure headed royal family of England. The people, like the queen...have no power or say in affairs of he government. We, the people maybe be the ones who elect our officials…but are choice of candidates are always handpicked beforehand…’the lesser of two evils’. Who puts them their in the first place? Indeed it is he who has the money who has the power. Campaign funds are donated to handpicked candidates…both of whom receive money…both of whom are expected to repay the debt for their push to power. It is the multibillion dollar industries and the few special interest groups that are the balance behind the checkbooks. The Pharmaceutical industry, the Defense contractors, the infamous AIPAC…these are the real rulers of Democracy. This foolish dream of the people’s power…the right to vote…the Republic for which no nation today stands is no more a reality than the masks worn by our ‘elected’ officials when they try to sell it to us.
Democratic nations have proved all too well their domination by the powerful and the rich. Our parliaments and our congresses, once a forum for the people, have become no more today than an auctioning house for government. In the land where the people are suppose to rule…their lives and their freedom are sold to whomever can bid the highest. Laws are made by lobbyists…the senators and representatives are merely the ones who put their signatures. Lobbyists control the congress, and the rich control the lobbyists.
Who then controls the nation?
How much longer will it be until democracy fails only to be replaced by another? Greece and Rome fell. In the end…every nation rises and falls, and governing systems come and go. It is the Hegemonic Principle. How much more time do you think our old friend The Republic has left to live?
We have been taught since elementary school that we as Americans are citizens of ‘The Greatest country in the World’. From the youngest days of public schooling all American children have been taught the nobility of becoming the great American Mujahideen; to die for your country. What a great honor that is. After all, why die for the sake of Allah, the Eternal, the Everlasting when you can die for your country, which in a few hundred years will be no more than something in a history textbook?
The western word has taken it upon itself to finally ‘civilize’ the Arab and Muslim world…to bring them democracy…to set them free. Perhaps, as they fail to realize…that the Arab and Muslim worlds know a bit more about the realities of democracy than they do. Egypt has been around for thousands of years…it has witnessed the Greeks, the Romans, the French, the English. It has been there from the birth of democracy to its own eventual self-democratization. Yet it is also a very clear example of the failures of a democracy, of how power really does essentially belong in the power of a few. Even with all the checks and balances in the world every governmental system eventually falls to over-corruption and an eventual demise. It would be wise to take as an example those who have gone before us before flouting democracy as the most perfect system.
Under the Muslim caliphates, nations from Spain to Baghdad were prosperous and powerful…the center of culture and education. Whilst the Europeans of the dark ages were burning priceless works of literature for heating, the Muslims scholars of the day were preserving the books such as Plato’s “The Republic” which would eventually serve as today’s foundation of democracy. Now these nations are divided and weak…utterly corrupted…shades of a golden past. But hey, at least they are democracies…and after all that’s what counts the most.
The truth is that a righteous person will outdo any system of government. We should be focusing more on the character of our rulers, not the system of government which they rule in.
May Allah grant our Ummah guidance.
beautiful Rami, very eloquent and all true...
Insha'Allah may Allah bring back the glory days of Islam where there is one Khalifa and we all live by the rulings of Allah
'work in this life as if you'll live forever, prepare for the Hereafter as if you'll die tomorrow'
on April 16, 2004 10:03 AMSalaam, great article and how so true!
Unfortunately, many Muslims have fallen in the "democratic trap" I have noticed Muslims promote democracy more than nonMuslims. They think democracy is the solution to the problems of the Ummah. These so called "Ijtihadis" or "Enlightened" Muslims have to realize that our Emaan and sincerity, or the lack of these elements are the reasons for our wretched state. I am sure we all have noticed these "Progrssive" Muslims try to come up with ways to Democratize Islam, they always seem to be comparing Islam to democracy. How blind in trying to compare a man-made system to a system accepted by Allah Almighty!
on April 17, 2004 12:26 AMMashaAllah Rami, outstanding work.
on April 17, 2004 1:10 AMMashallah, very eloquent. It is so frantic that Muslim countries are exploited for not having any democracy, and those who exploit are themselves the totalitarians leading their country into a havoc with only their own hands. May Allah (swt) help Muslims make such a system that no one can raise any objections against it and which stands on ideal that are much more stronger than the "false dream of democracy". Ameen.
on April 17, 2004 8:55 AMassalaamualaikum,
before a khalifa, we should bring back the ulema, and stop ostracizing them because our opinions differ from theirs.
walaikumsalaam
Wajahat Gilani
"before a khalifa, we should bring back the ulema, and stop ostracizing them because our opinions differ from theirs."
here here
on April 17, 2004 4:25 PMIt is essential to understand the shortcomings of each political system, and none is without its shortcomings, but eventually one must move on to the point of being constructive rather than merely criticizing. The main question and principle point of superiority of Western democracies over most Muslim countries is, how do we hold our political leaders accountable to the people they are supposed to serve? Until we address that critical point, we are merely running in circles.
on April 20, 2004 9:58 AMIs there such a thing as excessive accountability to the people, considering that in the U.S., politicians always seem ready to bend to their will, and wisdom is gone?
on April 20, 2004 12:00 PMAsalaam Aleikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatu,
If the will of the people determined the actions of the respresentative then the U.S., Spain, and the U.K. would never have entered the war in Iraq.
On the point of Western superiority of Democracy...it's simply not true. The system in the west is severly damaged to the point where, at least in the U.S. the government has become a body almost completey separated from the people. The balance of power today in America undoubtedly lies in the executive branch, with little or no checks and balances from the other two.
The reason for critsism rather than providing solutions was for the simple fact that my article was to prove the vast faultiness of democratic nations today. To show its imperfection. Today the west is trying to not only sell their system of government to the east and middle east...but are also trying to implement it by force; economically and militarily.
We have no room for Manifest Destiny in the 21st century.
Waslaam Warahmatullah Wabarakatu
on April 21, 2004 5:17 PMAb Jaag oote sai hai dewaanai, dunya koi jagaakar dham le ghai,
ye bhaat ayaa hai dunya par, hum phool bi hai, thalwar bi hai...
jiye gai, tho izzat sai jiyye gai,
nai hi jaane shahdat pi lain gai