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Dr. Muqtedar
Khan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Adrian College in Michigan. He
is on the board of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, Center for Balanced
Development and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. For a comprehensive resume
click here: Resume
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ISLAMIC STATE Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D. The Taliban are gone but they have left us with
several serious questions about the future of religious minorities in Islamic states in
particular and religious states in general. Today there are at least three major
conceptions of religious states – Jewish, Islamic and Hindu. Israel strongly
identifies itself as a Jewish state; Nepal is a Hindu state and India under the growing
influence of Hindu Nationalism is toying with the idea of Ram Rajya – Hindu
statehood. Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Sudan and Afghanistan under Taliban
claimed to be Islamic states. Religious states face a significant challenge
from diversity. They seek to advance and establish a specific normative social agenda. In
order for these states to be successful it is important that the population share the
ideological beliefs of those who hold power. The presence of diversity and difference of
opinion between the populace makes it necessary for the state to privilege one element of
the citizenry over others thereby institutionalizing discrimination and intolerance. The Challenge of
Diversity
Islamic states inevitably treat non-Muslim
citizens as less than equal curbing their access to power and religious freedom. Even in Israel, which is a democracy, religious
minorities face discrimination. In 1976 when Israel captured Jerusalem, 28% of its
population was Christian and now only 2% of Jerusalem’s inhabitants are Christians. Christians may become extinct in their own holy
city and the primary reason for this is the religious importance of Jerusalem to Jewish
state. This is a sobering example of how in
spite of democracy a religious state can marginalize religious minorities. Malaysia is an example where religious ideology
and democracy mix very well. Malaysia is 65% Muslim and strongly identifies itself as an
Islamic state. It is a very active member of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conferences). In spite of its Islamic identity, Malaysian
Muslims share power and wealth with Christians, Buddhists and Hindus who are all equal
citizens of the country and have equal rights and duties. But religious minorities in some Islamic
states, such as Afghanistan under the Taliban, suffer institutionalized discrimination
because of these states’ legalist orientation and their obsession with the Islamic
jurisprudence. Some of the legalist positions in Islamic states are so strict that
non-Muslim minorities find it a challenge to live normal lives. Blasphemy laws and apostasy laws are well known
for the problems they cause minorities. Narrow interpretation of the role of women in
Islamic societies has also restricted the scope of possibilities for non-Muslim women. The
Objectives of an Islamic Society
The Maqasid al Shariah (the objective of
the Islamic law/way) are falah (welfare) and hayat-e-tayyabah (good life)
for the members of the community. But when
contemporary Islamists operationalize this divine vision of the Islamic state, they define
the Islamic state as that which implements the Islamic law. Islamic law is divine in its
origin, and since God does not need the consent of his creation, Contemporary Islamists
insist on imposing Islamic law even without consent. Due to colonization, and prior to it,
due to the decline of Islamic intelligentsia, Islamic legal tradition remains fossilized
and is still struck in the middle ages. Islamic
state therefore becomes a reduced to a coercive institution seeking to enforce a system of
laws that were deduced from Islamic sources several centuries ago. The irony of this reality is that in seeking to
impose Islamic law and create an Islamic state, Islamists are actually in direct
opposition to the spirit and letter of the Quran. The Quran is very explicit when it says
“there is no compulsion in religion,” (Quran 2: 256). Elsewhere the Quran exhorts Jews to live by the
laws revealed to them in the Torah. In fact The Quran expresses surprise that some Jews
sought the arbitration of the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) rather than their own
legal tradition (5:43). The Quran also orders Christians to live by their faith; “So
let the people of the Gospel judge by that which Allah has revealed therein, for he who
judges not by that which Allah has revealed is a sinner,” (Quran 5:47). From these
verses it is abundantly clear that an Islamic state must advocate religious pluralism even
to the extent of permitting multiple legal systems. Lessons from Medina
Unlike the present day Islamists, Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh), when he established the first Islamic state in Medina – actually a
Jewish-Muslim federation extended to religious minorities the rights that are guaranteed
to them in the Quran. Prophet Muhammad’s
Medina was based on the covenant of Medina, a real and actual social contract agreed upon
by Muslims, Jews and others that treated them as equal citizens of Medina. They enjoyed
the freedom to choose the legal system they wished to live under. Jews could live under
Islamic law, or Jewish law or pre-Islamic Arab tribal traditions. There was no compulsion
in religion even though Medina was an Islamic state. The difference between Medina and
today’s Islamic states is profound. The state of Medina was based on a real social
contract that applied divine law but only in consultation and with consent of all citizens
regardless of their faith. But contemporary Islamic states apply Islamic law without
consent or consultation and often through coercion. It is a sad commentary on
contemporary Islamists that while democracy is a challenge to contemporary Islamic states,
it was constitutive to the first Islamic state in Medina established by the Prophet of
Islam.
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