Well, this is a bit shocking – and truthful.
“Mazin AbdulAdhim, a prominent Imam of Iraqi descent in London, Ontario who is affiliated with the radical Islamic global movement of Hizb ut-Tahrir, asserts that “Islam and democracy are contradictory and absolutely incompatible.”
The imam was in Canada to call for Muslims to keep on with Islamic law, and not give in to secularism.
“He called on Canadian Muslims to stick to the Islamic law, reject secularism, work together to spread Islam, re-establish the Islamic State (Caliphate) and implement the rulings of Islam (Sharia Law).”
The site
CiJNews goes into greater detail:
“Mazin AbdulAdhim, a prominent Imam of Iraqi descent in London, Ontario who is affiliated with the radical Islamic global movement of Hizb ut-Tahrir, asserts that ‘Islam and democracy are contradictory and absolutely incompatible.’
“AbdulAdhim’s statement comes in response to a
video posted by Mehdi Hasan, a British political journalist, broadcaster and author, [who] argues that Muslims accept democratic values and argues Muslims not to listen to ‘experts’ who claim otherwise.”
The site then
excerpts portions of the video that was broadcast on Al Jazeera TV, in which it’s argued the “big picture” of the Arab world shows that yes, while Sharia law is dominant in parts, and many Muslims live under dictatorships, most – 62 percent – live in the Asia Pacific, where democracies thrive.
“Flawed democracies, yes, but democracies nevertheless, in which hundreds of millions of Muslims, regularly go to the polls to elect their rulers,” the video transcript states, according to CiJNews.
But AbdulAdhim contests that idea of compatibility between Islam and democratic rule.
He responds to the video with this, posted at
Jihad Watch:
““This video does not discuss whether Islam is compatible with democracy, rather he is discussing whether Muslims can handle living under a democracy. These are two very separate issues.
“If we are going to discuss whether *Islam* is compatible with democracy, we need to define the two systems properly first.
“More specifically, we must defined:
“1) Who is the “sovereign” (meaning, who has the right to legislate laws) in both systems, 2) who has “authority” (meaning, who has the right to choose the ruler) in both systems.
“The issue is very simple:
“1- Sovereignty: In a democracy, man is the sovereign legislator, so laws are legislated based exclusively on the will of the people. In Islam, on the other hand, Allah (swt) is the Sovereign Legislator, so laws are legislated based exclusively on the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah; the people have no right or capability to make Halal into Haram, or Haram into Halal, no matter how many people vote in favor of it.
“2- Authority: In a democracy, man has the right to elect his ruler. In Islam, man has the right to elect his ruler.
“So, people tend to confuse these two things. Yes, people can elect their ruler in both Islam and democracy, but no, people cannot legislate their own laws in Islam, whereas they can in a democracy.
“Therefore, Islam and democracy are contradictory and absolutely incompatible, because Islam forbids mankind from legislating laws in the place of the Creator, even if the overwhelming majority of the people vote in favor of it.”
