Are Islamic doctrines compatible with Political Liberalism?
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Holloway University of London
Department Name: Politics and International Relations
Abstract
The rapidly growing Muslim presence in Europe
makes more urgent the longstanding conflict
between Islamic and Western understandings of the
political world. Islamic scholarship advocates a
political order grounded in faith, which is at tension
with the liberal democratic ideas that reject the
legitimacy of political systems established on the
basis of religious principles. This research seeks to
address the question of compatibility of Islam with
liberal values by conducting a comparative analysis
between the moral language of Islamic faith and
fundamental liberal democratic ideas in light of the
Rawslian theoretical framework. John Rawls, as a
pre-eminant liberal theorist, articulates a
fundamental set of liberal ideas and optimistically
assumes that the doctrines of a pluralist democratic
society would not conflict with the ideas and
principles of a liberal democratic political culture.
This project assumes that a liberal democratic
society requires the support of different doctrinal
traditions in order to enjoy legitimacy and political
stability. Therefore, to test Rawls's optimistic
assumption and provide support for liberal values
from an Islamic perspective, I will analyse the
doctrines of scholastic theology (ilm al-kalam) and
moral theology (usul al-fiqh) in the Islamic Intellectual tradition, as well as re-assess Rawlsian
liberal ideas. To assess more carefully the
comptability of Islamic doctrines to fundamental
liberal ideas, the project will employ the method of
comparative political theorising. The contours of the
similarities and differences between Islamic doctrinal
tradition and political liberal ideas could help
understand whether Muslims would withdraw their
support to liberal societies as the presence of Islamic
faith becomes more prominent. By paying heed to
these similarities and differences, the result of the
analysis will help to enrich both the Islamic and
liberal intellectual traditions, deepen their
understanding of each other and engender respect
for the doctrinal pluralism that characterises liberal
democratic societies.
makes more urgent the longstanding conflict
between Islamic and Western understandings of the
political world. Islamic scholarship advocates a
political order grounded in faith, which is at tension
with the liberal democratic ideas that reject the
legitimacy of political systems established on the
basis of religious principles. This research seeks to
address the question of compatibility of Islam with
liberal values by conducting a comparative analysis
between the moral language of Islamic faith and
fundamental liberal democratic ideas in light of the
Rawslian theoretical framework. John Rawls, as a
pre-eminant liberal theorist, articulates a
fundamental set of liberal ideas and optimistically
assumes that the doctrines of a pluralist democratic
society would not conflict with the ideas and
principles of a liberal democratic political culture.
This project assumes that a liberal democratic
society requires the support of different doctrinal
traditions in order to enjoy legitimacy and political
stability. Therefore, to test Rawls's optimistic
assumption and provide support for liberal values
from an Islamic perspective, I will analyse the
doctrines of scholastic theology (ilm al-kalam) and
moral theology (usul al-fiqh) in the Islamic Intellectual tradition, as well as re-assess Rawlsian
liberal ideas. To assess more carefully the
comptability of Islamic doctrines to fundamental
liberal ideas, the project will employ the method of
comparative political theorising. The contours of the
similarities and differences between Islamic doctrinal
tradition and political liberal ideas could help
understand whether Muslims would withdraw their
support to liberal societies as the presence of Islamic
faith becomes more prominent. By paying heed to
these similarities and differences, the result of the
analysis will help to enrich both the Islamic and
liberal intellectual traditions, deepen their
understanding of each other and engender respect
for the doctrinal pluralism that characterises liberal
democratic societies.
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P00072X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 1936374 | Studentship | ES/P00072X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 15/02/2022 | Gozde Hussain |
| Description | This research project seeks to address the question of whether, given the growing Muslim population in the West, Islamic doctrinal traditions provide support for the legitimacy and stability of liberal political order. Or is it the case that for these traditions, the liberal state is only a compromise, one to be supported for pragmatic reasons until Muslims become a majority? I approach the dichotomy between the Islam and liberalism from a Rawlsian theoretical perspective. John Rawls, as a preeminent liberal theorist, articulates a fundamental set of liberal ideas, and argues that the moral and religious doctrines of a pluralist society would support, or at least would not conflict with, the principles underlying a liberal democratic political order. The question of the compatibility between Islam and Rawlsian political liberalism has interested scholars including Andrew March, Tariq Ramadan and Mohammed Fadel, and my project criticizes these scholars for underestimating the demands of political stability in Rawlsian theoretical framework. I argue that in their accounts, the criterion of compatibility, i.e. liberal citizenship, and the Islamic literature that they engaged with, i.e. ethical aspect of Muslim minorities, cannot ensure that should the balance of power change in the favor of Muslims, they would not withdraw their support for liberal political order. In Rawlsian theoretical framework however the stability of society requires the support of different doctrinal traditions to the legitimacy of liberal state even if the balance of power change in the favor of certain doctrinal tradition. Thus, this project reveals that although other scholars claim to demonstrate the existence of strong support of Muslims for the liberal state their projects only deliver the weak compromises of Muslims on liberal citizenship. Accordingly, my project overcomes these shortcomings and offers a a distinctive approach to the analysis of the compatibility between Islamic doctrines and Rawlsian Political Liberalism: (i) This project takes the issue of the stability of liberal political order seriously and therefore employs a decisive criterion of compatibility i.e. it assesses the extent to which Islamic doctrines support the central liberal demands of accepting the legitimacy of liberal political order rather than relying on the inconclusive criterion of liberal conception of citizenship. (ii) It is attentive to conditional and unconditional support of Islamic doctrines for the fundamental demands of Rawlsian Political Liberalism. Consequently, the project analyses the Islamic sources that explicitly deal with ethical aspects of Muslim majority states in order to demonstrate that Muslims should support liberal state as their choice rather than as their compromise due to their being a minority. (iii) This project maps out a clear and comprehensive spectrum of Islamic orthodoxy positions rather than relying on a binary distinction of orthodox and un-orthodox Islamic doctrines. This approach offers a clear answer to the plausibility of Muslim's support for liberal state. Given that Muslims support for liberal political order is grounded on Islamic positions within the spectrum of orthodoxy positions rather than based on radically different Islamic approach, the reconciliation of Islam and Liberalism can be viewed as feasible. Accordingly, this project shows that a sincere and pious Muslim can support liberal political order as a valuable moral project from within their Islamic doctrinal tradition so that they would not consider themselves as alienated citizens who are irrelevant to this moral project. (iv) This project offers liberal states the appropriate strategies, mechanisms and moral reasons to transform Muslim citizens who hold incompatible Islamic doctrines with fundamental liberal values to Muslims citizens that affirm to the compatible Islamic positions. |
| Exploitation Route | This project contributes to an ongoing and important conversation about the relation between the liberal states and their Muslim members. Academically, the results of this inquiry partly test Rawls's optimistic assumption that 'all the main historical religionsmay be seen as reasonable comprehensive doctrines.' Rawlsian scholars can refer to this project to prove that Rawls assumption is feasible from the view point of Islamic doctrinal traditions. Moreover, this protect contributes to the newly emerging field of comparative political theory which calls for a dialogic engagement with non-Western traditions of thought and avoids methodological Eurocentrism. As this research project is a theoretical inquiry, the results will not be able to explain or predict which doctrines are or will be affirmed by the majority of Muslims citizens in reality. However, this project offers the doctrinal resources, the central concepts and the contextual framework to the qualitative and quantitative research projects that analyses Muslim citizens affirmation to the compatible Islamic doctrines with fundamental liberal values. This conversation extends beyond academic political theory and has real world relevance and consequence. As well as the Islamic doctrines that support the fundamental liberal ideals, the project presents Islamic doctrines that give Muslims the strongest Islamic motivations possible to reject and challenge any political order other than an Islamic one. The project assesses whether state can employ appropriate strategies, mechanisms and moral reasons to transform Muslim citizens who hold incompatible Islamic doctrines to Muslims citizens who affirm compatible Islamic positions in liberal democratic regimes. Accordingly, this project contributes the contemporary policy debates about the scope of toleration, the religious exemptions, and, the matters of stability in modern pluralistic societies, the limits of right to free speech i.e. hate speech, incivility and offence, the limits of parents' rights to found their own private religious schools and place of a state-funded liberal education in a religiously diverse society. |
| Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| URL | http://fqp.luiss.it/2019/05/10/the-problems-with-the-burdens-of-judgement/ |