Article: "The Silenced Majority" by Radwan Masmoudi in THE JOURNAL OF DEMOCRACY April 2003 - Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)

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"The Silenced Majority"
By Radwan Masmoudi
Journal of Democracy
April 2003, Volume 14, Number 2

Liberal Islam is a branch, or school, of Islam that emphasizes human liberty and freedom within Islam. Liberal Muslims believe that human beings are created free-a concept that is so important to highlight in the Muslim world today-and that if you take away or diminish freedom, you are in fact contradicting human nature as well as divine will. While some people want to impose their views on others, liberal Muslims insist that people-both men and women-must be free to choose how to practice their faith. This is in accordance with the basic teaching of the Qur'an that "there can be no compulsion in religion." Forcing religion on people contradicts a basic requirement of religion; that human beings are supposed to come to God of their own free will.

What is "liberal Islam"?

In contrast to the radically different "liberalisms" of the United States on one hand and Europe on the other, Islamic liberalism, through a focus on the concept of "hurriya" (liberty), emphasizes both collective liberty for the community (Ummah) from occupation and oppression, and at the same time individual liberty for the citizens and members of that community. Like classical libertarians, as incarnated in the work of thinkers such as de Bastiat, von Mises, and von Hayek, Islamic liberalism places emphasis on limited government, individual liberty, human dignity, and human rights. "Moderate Islam" is another description often used for the ideas and people that I have in mind. However, "moderate" does not precisely capture the pervasive ideological orientation suggested here. The main pillars of Islamic liberalism are:

Hurriya (liberty): Human beings are created free and must remain free; freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of movement are essential to life as envisaged by our creator. Without freedom, life and religion have no meaning and no flavor. God, in his unlimited wisdom, intended human beings to be free; free to believe or disbelieve and free to practice or not practice. It is wrong and counter-productive to impose religion on people, and it is also against the will of God.
Adl (justice): Equality before God must translate into equality on earth. Only God can be the judge of who is best among us. Justice must be upheld for everyone; man or woman, Muslim or non-Muslim, friend or foe, Arab or non-Arab. Justice means that every human being is treated fairly and equally by society and by the government. Injustice toward a single human being is an injustice toward all and an affront to the almighty God.
Shura (consultation): God is against oppression and dislikes oppressors. The affairs of the community and the society must be decided through mutual consultation and consent. Consultation must include all members of the community and must be binding on the rulers or office-holders. Prophet Mohammed died without designating a ruler, and indicated to his companions that they must elect the ruler themselves, and the ruler must be held accountable to them.
Ijtihad (rational interpretation): God has prescribed important goals for believers to achieve on earth (such as Shura, justice, freedom, dignity, and peace). However, the way to achieve these objectives is mostly left up to Muslims themselves, who must decide using reason, knowledge, and faith what is best for them and for their community. Islam has no clergy and no hierarchy, and therefore all Muslims must voice their opinion, in light of the teachings of Islam and the changing needs and priorities of society. It is vital for the Muslim Ummah today that the doors of Ijtihad-closed for some 500 years-be re-opened.

There are many scholars and leaders for this growing movement in the Muslim world, although they are not well known in the West. They include Tarek al-Bichri and Saleem al-Awwa (Egypt), Mohamed Talbi (Tunisia), Anwar Ibrahim (Malaysia), Fathi Osman, Aziza al-Hibri, and Abdulaziz Sachedina (U.S.), Shafeeq Ghabra (Kuwait), Abdelwahab El-Affendi (Sudan), Nurcholish Madjid (Indonesia), Ibrahim al-Wazir (Yemen), and Abdul Karim Soroush (Iran).

Why Is It Silent, and What Can We Do to Give It More Voice?

The good news is that liberal Islam represents the overwhelming majority within the Muslim world today. The bad news is that it is a silent majority-or perhaps more accurately, a silenced one. There are two minority groups in the Muslim world that are fighting, literally, over political control: secular extremists and religious extremists. For the most part, secular extremists are in power, as they have been for the last fifty years, but they have lost legitimacy largely because of their unabashed and relentless efforts to impose their views on society. The religious extremists also want to impose their views, but many of them are in jail, or in hiding. They are not in power, except in two or three countries. They have also lost legitimacy because they advocate violence. Between these two extremes, we find the majority of the people, who want to practice their religion faithfully, but who also want to live in the modern age-i.e., they want a modern, moderate, and appropriate interpretation of Islam.

Is liberal Islam likely to grow?

In the long run, yes, because it is the only alternative that combines faith and reason. In the short run, it depends as liberal Muslims are caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the state (and its internal police forces mukhabarat) in the oppressive form it predominantly takes in the Muslim world, which is constantly pounding the society in general. These states do not like liberal Islam because the latter threatens the corrupt status quo that the former sustain. Because these states often do not distinguish between liberal and fundamentalist Islam, they tend to perceive religion itself as a threat. In the Muslim world, the state has often taken the stand that you are "with us or against us," and if you try to criticize it in any way, you are automatically seen as a threat and silenced. The hard place is the aggregation of fundamentalist groups who want to monopolize Islam. These groups accuse anyone talking of moderation, patience, legitimacy, reason, and pragmatic thinking of being un-Islamic or anti-Islam. The religious authorities in most Muslim countries have little credibility because they so often accede to the enormous pressure they are under either to side with the state or to side with the fundamentalists.

The key to success of liberal Islam is to have more freedom. Lack of freedom in the Muslim countries is stifling society, preventing any debate on what is wrong with the Muslim world today. You add to the lack of freedom a loss of dignity, a sense of hopelessness and despair, and you have a fertile ground for all kinds of extremism and violence. Hence, the solution is to allow liberal Islam to grow, which means radically expanding freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, and freedom to form independent organizations. This is, of course, the essence of democracy.

Some people claim that the Muslim world needs the rule of law, but not necessarily democracy. It is impossible to separate the two; you cannot have rule of law without democracy. When the law comes from an illegitimate government, it is illegitimate, and its enforcement, in the absence of independent branches of government, leads to dictatorship.

The transition to democracy may take a few years. However, the transition must be real, must be sustained, and must be irreversible. Governments in the Muslim world have become adept at promising democratic reforms while delivering more oppression. This has created an environment of great disappointments and frustration.

What can the West do?

The international community needs to exert sustained pressure on the existing governments to allow more freedom, because it is in their own interest and in that of their societies, as well as in the interest of peace and stability in the world. Of course, they will scream and complain of interference, and demand that their "sovereignty" be respected. But we must insist, because this is the only way out of the terrible situation that we all find ourselves in.
Moderate and liberal Muslims should be allowed to have a voice. Repressive regimes must not be allowed to use the war on terrorism to silence all opposition or to lump all Islamists together. Those who advocate extremism and violence are the enemies of mankind and of Islam, and must be stopped before they bring havoc and mayhem to their own countries and to the world. However, real and genuine reforms are needed, and liberal and moderate voices cannot be heard in an environment of fear and repression.

The international community should make democratic reforms in the Muslim world a priority. As a start, the United States and European countries must stop supporting dictators in the name of stability. We all know that the stability provided by dictators is an illusion that only breeds violence and extremism. To promote peace and strengthen the voices of liberal Islam, Muslim countries must gain experience with democratic institutions and practices. Experience with democracy will allow Islamic movements to become more moderate and adapt their visions, thoughts, and strategies to the needs of their societies and the requirements of the twenty-first century. The contrasting examples of Turkey and Algeria are very telling in this regard. Staunchly secular Turkey allowed Islamists to participate in the political process, and thus is on the road to becoming a model democratic state in the Muslim world. Algeria, however, chose to crackdown harshly on its Islamist party in 1992, and is still recovering from a ten-year old civil war, which has resulted in the death of over 150,000 people and the radicalization of Islamist groups around the world.

A Glimmer of Hope

Liberal Islam is thriving and well in the United States and in Europe. Many freethinking Muslims who could not tolerate the repressive environments of their own countries have escaped and now live in the West where they enjoy freedom. They represent significant groups that can, and I believe will, play a major role in modernizing Islam and in promoting liberal and moderate views of Islam in the Muslim world. The reformation of Islam will require freedom and democracy, and right now the only place where we have them is in the West. It is for this reason that I believe reformation will begin in the West. American Muslims, and Muslims who live in the West, are an important asset for liberal Islam, for all those who share its goals of peace, freedom, and democracy, and ultimately for the Muslim world itself. But for reasons that are still not clear, liberal Muslims continue to be marginalized, even in the United States. In the aftermath of September 11, there are genuine risks that the U.S. Muslim community will be further isolated and marginalized, in the name of fighting terrorism. This would be a tragedy.

It is imperative that U.S. Muslims play a leading role in reforming the Islamic world, principally by spreading understanding among Muslims generally, and their leaders in particular, of the values and merits of democracy. Friends of Islam and, indeed, everyone who hopes for peace and for interfaith harmony should do all they can to support liberal Islam, the nascent voice of the Muslim world's silenced majority.

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