Mixing Islam & Liberalis = Mixing Oil & Water

Some believe that Islam is a liberal religion. Those who say this have absolutely no idea what liberalism is all about. Liberalism does claime that it no threat to religion as it allows individual freedom to believe whatever they want to believe, however from a religious perspective this act of reducing the scope of religion to an individual level is like killing its very spirit.

Religion gives a perspective to understand the world; it provides a value system to prioritize; and defines purpose of man (and women) and his (and her) way toward salvation. It claims to provide orientation to not just an individual but also a family unit and society as a whole. From a religious perspective if someone doesn't follow it, then he is doing harm to himself by distancing away from salvation and forgiveness of Allah s.w.t on the judgment day.

This naturally makes it a responsibility of every believer to save others from going to hell, by inspiring others through persuading them and by setting an example. The translation of Surah Al-Asar says it all "By time, Indeed, mankind is in loss, Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.". 

This simply implies that for a religious person, a Muslim for example, the scope of religion extends well beyond his personal self and encompass everything around him. This naturally requires the support of the state as without it the process of saving the entire society from hellfire would not be possible. State is therefore responsibilie to facilitate and support the process of spreading the mindset which Islam approves.

In a liberal discourse, state cannot do so, it needs to rather promote the liberal values by not allowing religion to politically dominating the society or allow any of its institutions to involve in promotion of any religious message. This is what a secular state should do.

This is not just it, liberal philosophy even define an individual, his purpose and what he may do to achieve it. This categorically requires an individual to become autonomous, an end in himself, and decide about everything including his priorities, values, concept of good or bad through his own thinking (see Kant's Metaphysics of Morals). If he wants to adhere to some religion then it is his personal affair and shouldn't become affect others life around him. Man (or women's) goal is to become hedonistic pleasure seeking (animals), and government job is to rather educate them to refine the quality of their ability to maximize pleasure (see Stuart Mill). Furthermore enhancing ones freedom to satisfy ones pleasures is an end which is supposed to be sought by each individual, for which capital and wealth is/are required. More money you have, more free you are. Anyone is not doing so is not rational and is wasting his life, from a liberal perspective.

Liberalism is also totalitarian i.e. it doesn't tolerate anyone going against it. At lip service it does accepts religious plurality, however a religious mindset is discouraged & not tolerated in some cases as well. French ban of Hijab is an example. The reason is simple: a religious mindset is anti-hedonistic and doesn't recognizes pleasure seeking as an ideal, also because such a mindset accepts the values, priorities, concept of good and bad as defined by religion and doesn't recognizes individuals preferences in this regards. In view of Dr. Javed Akbar Ansari, liberalism is rebellion from God, if correct, now what would Islamic liberalism mean then?

Contemporary discourse on Democracy is also liberal in nature. In this context, Islamization of democracy can only be done after liberalizing Islam, or creating a form of Islamic liberalism, if this is not done then there is no internationally acceptable version of democracy otherwise. If Islamic Democracy doesn't comply with liberal standards, then it would be considered as an threat equal to that of Taliban by western standards.

Imagine a democracy where majority go for implementation of Shariah law in the country, which includes chopping of hands of a thief, declaring adultery as a crime punishable with 100 lashes, enforcement of distribution of inheritance as per shariah, declaring all non Muslims as dhimmi, etc etc... then such a kind of democracy will be not just discredited internationally, rather all efforts will be done to derail it.

Now can some one explain how Islamic Democracy or Islamic liberalism would be defined, and what it would mean?

Author is an academic researcher, author, blogger, social entrepreneur, activist, facilitator, mentor and tweets @javaidomar