Some Islamic scholars on Islam and politics

The Egyptian Islamic scholar and former scholar at the Cairo Ibn Khaldoun Center, Ahmed Sobhi Mansour, argues in Mediaeval theocracies in a modern age in al-Ahram that modern secular liberal regimes are more Islamic than theocatic regres who do not render any service to Islam:

"Any classification of "Islamic states" is political and demagogic, not scientific. Such states have nothing to do with the true Islamic state created by the Prophet Mohamed, who laid its foundations as decreed by the Qur'an. Today's so-called Islamic states are not based on absolute freedom of faith and a delicate balance between a free market, social justice, human rights and true participatory democracy. The modern secular state in its present form, in fact, is a step on the way to the realisation of the true Islamic state."

"The movements that have striven to create Islamic states in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen believe in the same mediaeval doctrines that run counter to the principles of the Qur'an and the practice of the Prophet."

"These mediaeval theocracies will not only destroy the future of their own people, thus rendering a great service to America, but will also destroy Islam. We must implement rigorous reform, based on human and citizens' rights. Our degree of success will determine our ability to create a true Islamic state, in which religion belongs to God and citizens have reason to hope and strive for equality."

Ahmed Subhy Mansour now lives in the USA. As he explains in the New York Times, Islamic reformers have long been persecuted in Egypt - by the Egyptian government through the mecanism of the state of exception

"To curry favor with this influential religious establishment, the Egyptian government has brutally cracked down on members of the Koranist movement, leading to the imprisonment and torture of over 20 members and the exile of many more. This unique collaboration between the government and Islamic traditionalists refutes current claims by the state that Egypt is secular and that it is working to fight extremism and terrorism."

"Many Americans do not realize that there is a war being waged in Egypt against Muslim reformers. These reformers call themselves "Koranists" because they focus solely on the Koran and advocate a modern interpretation of Islam that rejects Shariah law."

Gilbert Achcar  on religious politics in Egypt:

"The regime conceded a lot to them (Islamists) in the socio-cultural sphere, increasing  Islamic censorship in the cultural field being but one example. That was the easiest thing the regime could do to appease the Brotherhood. As a result, Egypt made huge steps backward from the secularisation that was consolidated under Gamal Abdul-Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s."

Ali Allawi, ex-minister in post-Saddam Iraq and an Islamic thinker's criticism od Muslim religious politics and renewal of Islamic civilisation:
For a long time, the two worlds of Islam, the outer world of political and social action and the inner world of spiritual and moral realization, seemed entirely at odds with each other. One was angry at Islam’s subordination, insistent on recognition and power, on challenging the status quo; the other was serene, introspective, and immersed in the intangible. The canvas of the first was societies and nations; of the second, the self and the individual.
The essential unity of Islam was greatly diminished, if not quite yet destroyed. People could no longer move effortlessly between the two realms of Islam.


As I became more involved in politics, through writings, speeches, and then as an active member of the opposition to the Baathist regime in Iraq and subsequently as a cabinet minister in Iraq from 2003 to 2006, it became clear that few of the Muslims I encountered in the political arena were concerned with the spiritual aspects of Islam. In practice, Islamists behaved no differently, and often worse, than their secular counterparts. Abuse of power, squandering or outright theft of public resources, and corruption were all endemic to Islamistled governments.

In postSaddam Iraq, however, the full extent of the dissonance between Islamic political and religious life was laid bare. The murderous violence that was unleashed by radical Wahhabiinspired Islamists was sanctioned with laborious jurisprudential “justifications” from leading religious figures. 

Not once during my threeyear stint in the Iraqi government did I witness an Islamist party, Sunni or Shia, promote an Islamic cause that they had earlier propounded in their manifestoes. Gone were their proposals for an Islamic economy, an Islamic system of laws, or an Islamic state. For example, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Islamic Dawa Party, from which emerged consecutive prime ministers, Ibrahim Jaafari and Nuri Kamal alMaliki, showed no interest in pursuing any even mildly Islamic program once they were installed in office. The ruling parties were driven by an obsessive desire for material gain and a desire to keep in the good graces of Washington.

A sad and dispiriting spectacle, it was evidence that Muslims had become divorced from the wellsprings of Islamic ethics: the search for a felicitous life, a harmonious and just society, and moral virtue, which in turn is a pathway to the Unseen.

Muslims cannot simply partake of the technological fruits of modern civilization while simultaneously rejecting or questioning its premises. That makes them nothing more than inert consumers of the effort and creativity of others — even if they continue to smugly assert the superiority of their spiritual ways. That is the ultimate fallacy of the Islamists