Islam & Democracy In The Context Of The Contemporary Islamic Political Resurgence

Date of Graduation

Fall 2002

Degree

Master of Global Studies

Department

History

Committee Chair

Mehrdad Haghayeghi

Abstract

During the last quarter of a century, much has been said and written about the correlation between Islam and democracy, in both Muslim as well as non-Muslim circles. In so far as the former group is concerned, the debate has generally been amongst Islamists and certain academic quarters, whereas in the latter it has been amongst academicians, journalists, and policy analysts. While the Non-Muslim contribution to this debate has indeed played a significant role in shaping modern Islamic political philosophy, however, this thesis will focus essentially on the Islamist perceptions of democracy. Although the dominant Islamist point of view is that Islam is wholly compatible with democracy, however, there remain a significant number of Islamists who view democracy as being antithetical to Islam. The more recent literature on this issue indicates that the locus of debate is slowly shifting to the question of just how much is Islam compatible with democracy. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the debate over Islam and democracy within the framework of the contemporary global movement towards Islamic revival, and to suggest future contemplative trends in this regard.

Subject Categories

International and Area Studies

Copyright

© Kamran Bokhari

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Dissertation/Thesis

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