“There is no way Islam and democracy can work together”, a leading Hungarian orientalist has claimed in an interview.
Historian Róbert Simon – who has translated the Qur’an into Hungarian – told the 21 July edition of the liberal weekly Magyar Narancs that “As contiguous and coherent ideologies, liberalism, democracy and socialism also preclude fundamental characteristics of Islam. Beyond a certain point, a parliament or a party system can override religious law or family relations and dynamics, an abundance of things that were evident for one and a half thousand years – such as differences between man and woman or the one-sided division of labour.”
Orientalist Róbert Simon has claimed that the coexistence of Islam and democracy is impossible (photo: Gábor Sióréti/magyarnarancs.hu)
“Islam is a very strictly defined form of existence that is accompanied by, among others, a large family, because a Muslim in the sense pof he individual does not exist. Moreover, religion is ruthlessly intertwined with society and the community. In Islam, the individual person truly exists through his community, and community is defined by Islam. Therefore, surrendering Islam in any sense would also bring about a sort of social, communal suicide.”
“There’s no need to go until absurdities for one to say that there is no way that the two, Islam and democracy, can work together. The Arab Spring, which demanded democracy, also came to its end within a year. On the level of politics, I could say that the impossibility of democracy is partly explained by the quesiton of legitimacy and hegemony. Exercising rule is undividable from gaining legitimacy in all cultures; however, in Islam this adopts a peculiar form.” (…) Islam therefore cannot take democratic shapes and the theocratic community, due to the form of rule, cannot take democratic shapes. This is a vicious circle, behind which is the unique character of Islam”, the 77-year-old Paris-born linguistic scholar argued in the interview.
via magyarnarancs.hu
photo: amnesty.org