ABSTRACT
The central question which will be critically assessed in the present chapter is the validity or otherwise of the concept of ‘Islamic democracy’. Following a very brief historical background with regard to the ways in which a number of eminent Iranian Muslim scholars have approached this topic, I shall turn to a more philosophical discussion concerning the notion of ‘social constructs’, the way they are constructed and their functions. It will be argued that ‘democracy’ as a social construct can take various shapes and forms. However, in all of these models a core set of functions must be preserved to enable us to identify this particular ‘construct’ as ‘democracy’ and not something else. It will be further explained that all social constructs, as devices or technologies, which are devised to facilitate man’s social needs, bear or embody values which are invested in them by their inventors or end-users. In this respect, a technology like democracy can, in principle, acquire values added to it by those social actors who happen to be Muslim. The upshot of the arguments of the chapter is that since different interpretations of Islam are conceivable, various combinations of ‘Islam’ and ‘democracy’ can be constructed. The challenge for Muslim intellectuals, however, is to produce models of ‘Islamic democracy’ which can prove their mettle as efficient political systems. Systems which are most suitable for the needs of the modern Islamic societies; superior to the existing systems in these societies; and yet comparable with their best rivals/counterparts in other parts of the world including the developed countries. In the last part of the chapter I shall briefly introduce the outline of a model of ‘Islamic democracy’ which is based on a critical rationalist reading of Islam.
