“Had only the people of the cities believed and had taqwa, We would have opened up for them blessings from the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 7:96).
‘Islamists’ or Muslims?
- Islamist: a new consciousness and new agencies involving a desire to reshape the modern world according to Islamic principles. (Activist)
- Muslim: a more passive historical and cultural stance on the part of the religion and its believers.
“Conservative democrats” or “Muslim democrats”?
The term ‘conservative democracy’ then points at two parallel processes: a new Muslim self on the one hand that does not put an ‘and’ to demarcate between Islam and democracy and who is open to the possibility of a mutual borrowing. In this case, this term involves a renunciation of an earlier Islamist claim that Islam was totally distinct from Western frames of reference. The prefix ‘conservative’ on the other hand testifies to Muslim actors’ long lasting desire to blend democracy with conservative values such as emphasis on the family or the prohibition of pornography.
(Kenan Cayir) (more…)