Tanveer Ahmed on Islam as a Collectivist Ideology
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
In Islam, Allah is the ultimate authority. In democracy, authority ultimately lies with the people. But does this mean that Islam is incompatible with democracy?After all, it was Islamic scholarship that introduced ancient Greek conceptions of democracy to the feudal states of Europe.Despite this, it has been suggested that the differences between Islam (especially when given political form) and the liberal democracies of the West are so great as to represent a 'clash of civilisations'.But is this so? Is an approach in which society is ordered according the will of God compatible with one in which the will of the people reigns supreme? - Intelligence Squared Australia