Laith Kubba Quotes
Because Muslims often consider the early traditions of Islam to be part of the original message of revelation, they typically look to the way Muslims lived in the past rather than attempt to construct new ways based on both the original teachings of Islam and the realities of modern life.
Laith Kubba, Iraqi International Relations Expert, "Islam and Liberal Democracy: Recognizing Pluralism," Journal of Democracy 7.2, 1996
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Theological & Legal Expert. The Sunnah, like the Koran, has statements of the Prophet, Mohammad. A fatwa is a religious legal ruling. This particular Fatwa shows the great difference between the Islamic State and a Republic or Democracy. In the latter forms, any religious practices must be consistent with the Constitution. Even though blasphemy might be prohibited by a religion, the United States Constitution for example protects anyone’s right to be blasphemous. In the Islamic system any constitution or law is subservient to and must be consistent with, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. In that sense, unless the Muslim populated nation is secular like Turkey, then the governments are partial or total theocracies.
This is another of De Tocqueville’s prescient statements that in retrospect seem so amazing given the time. This quotation could serve as an op ed in a newspaper of any of the industrial democracies of the early 21st century. However, he did not have the information of the details we have today that showed Islam as the pinnacle of scientific, philosophical, literary and medical achievement at the beginning of the second millennium, while the Christian nations of Europe were mired in the Dark Ages. It was the same Koran but a very different interpretation and framework that led to the decadence while it was the Protestant Reformation that triggered a Christianity that was hospitable to modernity and enlightenment.
The Messenger is Muhammed, founder of Islam. The Hadith are his sayings which have been compiled but are not in the Koran.
This is not terribly different however from Christians and Jews selectively quoting the Bible.
Legal Religious Ruling. This is an example of a source of tension between some Muslims and others. Non-Muslims are required to have a Muslim Education in Muslim countries, but they insist that any required Christian or secular education in a non Muslim country is anti-Islamic.
Ironically, while Radical Fundamentalist Muslims abroad claim that Western materialism and dem0cracy is not only anti-Islamic but a danger to Islam, in America there has been a growing and thriving Islamic community which has had far less difficulty reconciling their religion and American democracy and values than have other religions such as the Amish and orthodox Jews. This ease of the transition and Islamic compatibility with modern America is perhaps the central reason for the hatred of America. Aslan argues that the Muslim reformation is succeeding very smoothly in America and is the model for Muslims throughout the world.
In an orthodox Muslim nation, freedom of speech as a right is impossible.
