Eid al-Fitr Message: Islam’s
Challenge
to Sham Democracy
Yusef Waghid
Professor of Philosophy and Education
University of Stellenbosch, Western Cape,
South Africa.
Once again we are celebrating one of the great festivals in Islam. Eid al-Fitr
is indeed a festival of recurring happiness for all Muslims who endured physical
and material sacrifices during the auspicious month of Ramadan. This day we
contemplate our physical, intellectual and spiritual advances made during a
period of intense and committed fasting. We also remember the physically and
cognitively disadvantaged, the poor and needy, the sick and deceased, the
orphan, and all those Muslims and non-Muslims who experience moments of
unjustifiable vulnerability. We pray that Almighty Allah continue to have mercy
and compassion on us.
In this Eid al-Fitr message I raise concerns about the daunting social,
economic, cultural and political challenges which our Ummah (community) has to
contend with. I cannot imagine that Muslims in celebrating their happiness would
remain unperturbed about the catastrophic ramifications which Western democratic
discourse has enacted. This message attempts to accentuate some of our
predicaments we have to address if we were to become noble vanguards against the
dominance of Western modernity which has gained much ascendancy in the name of
democracy. To begin, I am not suggesting that deep democratic discourse with its
emphasis on invoking the collective will of the people through shared, rational
and intersubjective deliberation is in itself a harmful discourse. I am also
contesting any claim that deep democracy with its constitutive actions of
cultivating tolerance, respect, reconciliation and a sense of humanity are in
any way violating human rights and denying to humans their basic civic
liberties. My main contention is that democracy as it is practised in Western
political arenas, in particular dominant democracies’ attitudes towards
Muslims and Muslim-oriented countries, spawns a concern that something is
inherently wrong with the premises of Western liberal democracy.
The question arises: What seems to be wrong with global democratic agendas and
how can Islam contribute towards reshaping Western modernity’s democratic
agenda. Firstly, the biggest political sphere of democratic discourse has been
associated with the activities of the United Nations (UN). Unfortunately, as
Muslims we have witnessed the negotiations, bargaining, threats and veto on the
part of the dominant powers which have characterised the world body over the
past decade. Resolutions have mostly been implemented which saw the cultural,
economic, political and social decline and incessant suffering of nations such
as Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. Seldom have Muslim majority
countries really contested UN decisions since their reluctance to challenge the
United States (US), Britain and Russia has led to undesirable consequences in
Muslim majority countries – Afghanistan and Iraq continue to be humiliated,
and Palestine and Chechnya remain oppressed. To say that Islam can do something
to change the undesirable situations in Muslim majority countries seems to have
become an unachievable pipedream. Yet, we claim to have the perfect and complete
din and that Allah Almighty is always on our side. Reality suggests that
Muslims are not doing enough to alleviate their humiliation and suffering. And
unless, Muslim majority countries begin to show some resilience against Western
hegemony and concretise their collaborative efforts (which by now has been
alarmingly absent), their voices on a political, cultural and economic level
would remain muted!
Secondly, as Muslims from Africa, more specifically Southern Africa, we have
been most adversely affected by colonialism, racism and imperialism which have
been further propounded by famine, hunger, poverty, violence and hostility on
our continent. Democratic forces in the name of development and human upliftment
accuse us from betraying our own people – only witness the civil wars on the
African continent, political corruption, human rights violations and domestic
violence. Unless we begin to seriously enact our virtues of tolerance, respect,
caring, human dignity, rationality and love for the other, as Muslims we have
little chance of changing our own contexts (particularly our families) and on a
broader scale our African continent. Therefore, I contend that Muslims begin to
use their greeting on this glorious Eid to foster lasting co-operative
and dignified relations which would invariably impact on our society and
continent. This is where Islam can offer possibilities to counteract and reduce
stereotypes and biases about Islam’s apparent opposition towards democracy.
Islam is definitely opposed to a notion of democracy which creates conditions
whereby people are exploited, manipulated, controlled, marginalised and
repressed such as we find on the African continent. Nations have been exhorted
to democratise, yet the masses remain poor, underprivileged and unemployed. This
is so, since democratic change has brought about stability for a neo-liberal
market economy to succeed with its emphasis on individualistic competition,
profit and an apparent disregard for people. This is the type of democratic
change Islam finds abhorrent and detrimental to human flourishing, that is to
say, human happiness.
Thirdly, democracy as propounded by Western modernity and which undoubtedly has
permeated our society advocates a notion of liberality whereby freedom to live
together without being contractually bonded in marriage, physical expression in
an adulterous fashion, the right to abortion on demand, homosexual relations and
irreligiousity have been associated with the rights of individuals and
communities. This kind of democratic decadence has become the main reason as to
why our social services have become hospitals for proponents of such morally
corrupt practices. Islam reifies the right of individuals and communities,
sanctifies loyal marital relations, and condemns wicked and seductive exposure
of the human frame – all actions necessary to cultivate a common good based on
an ethics of trust, sincerity, honesty and mutual understanding.
Finally, education (as all serious-minded philosophers
would continuously remind us of) needs to be reconstructed beyond the parameters
of what has become sham democracy. Western liberal democracy advocates critique
and challenging, yet many institutions propound and implement a notion of
education which enslaves and reduces the mind of the intellectual to slavish
acceptance of what abusive authority envisages. Our education system is being
geared towards an economic labour market underscored by competition and profit.
The ‘outcomes’ we are teaching our students have the potential to make them
intellectual junkies since they are taught to be instrumentally rational and
vicious. Islam undermines an education system which does not inculcate in people
a sense of reasoning and compassion. But, since our education systems are
dominated and funded by corporate elites and controlled by bureaucrats and
apathetic technocrats who understand very little about education for humanity,
dare I say democracy, our institutions would inevitably fail in their efforts to
produce good persons – persons who can become good citizens.
Let the lessons we have learnt through our fasting and Eid
al-Fitr inspire us to enact meaningful Islamic discourse which has the
potential to counteract and reconstruct sham democratic discourse! Allah
Almighty says in the Glorious Qur`an: “And among those We created is a
community which guides by truth and thereby establishes justice” (Quran, al-`Araf,
7:181)
Eid Mubarak
Kullu `am Wa antum bihayr!
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