Moderates Versus The Radicals: Democracy And Freedom Versus Islam?

Yamin Zakaria examines closely what ‘freedom and democracy’ really means in western ‘democratic countries’ and looks at their grow...

The moderates ask: Is Islam compatible with democracy and freedom? The radicals ask: Is democracy and freedom compatible with Islam? So what’s the difference? The difference is in the ordering of the words - that determines which notion (Islam or freedom and democracy) is used as the reference point. That will be taken as the axiom to evaluate other idea(s). Therefore, the moderates use democracy and freedom as the yardstick to judge Islam, but the radicals take, Islam as the reference point to judge democracy and freedom. Let us first elucidate some of these terms, before examining the aforementioned questions