Saturday, 25th January 2014 Islamic Centre, Mira Road On the eve of India’s Republic Day celebrations, the Mira Road chapter of Jamaate Islami Hind organised a public lecture this evening to explore the compatibility of Democracy with Islam. The program began at 9 o’clock with the recitation of a few ayaat of the Holy Qur’an along with its translation in Urdu. Next, the compere invited Mr. Aslam Gazi to present an analysis on Democracy and Islam. The speaker began by explaining that the role of the prophets down the millennia had been to rectify the prevalent system; be it monarchy, tribal, capitalist etc, and establish a just and balanced system in its stead. He reasoned that just as prophets who were sent to rectify monarchy were sent as kings and those who were sent to rectify tribal governance were made members of tribes, it is quite natural that had a prophet been commissioned today, he would have strived to rectify democracy and give it an Islamic hue. The learned speaker averred that Democracy is not an ideology per se but only a means to carry forward an ideology. There are many forms of democracy witnessed today which serve as a vehicle to promote Monarchy (British), Capitalism (American) and even Islam (Iran). Thus, democracy need not have a defined code of functioning; rather it can be flexed to suit one’s personal needs. We, as Indian Muslims, can also use Democracy as a vehicle to further the cause of Islam. The fundamentals of Democracy, viz. Equality, Freedom and Justice are all compatible with Islam. Other subordinate clauses of Democratic setups seen today may or may not be taken up. For example, Islam does not have a concept of a viable opposition. In order to keep the democracy thriving, Islam gives each and every citizen the right to directly express dissent with the authorities and recall the representatives if required. Again, Islam has always maintained that no one should lobby for a post, but standing for elections and expressing one’s readiness for a post is not disallowed. One very important aspect of an Islamic democracy is that the right to legislate belongs to Allah alone. Elected representatives in parliament can only frame laws in accordance with the Qur’an and Sunnah. The learned speaker, while clarifying the Jamaat’s stand on Indian democracy, said that the JIH considers our Constitution to be un-Islamic, but the need of the hour is to penetrate the present democratic setup and rectify it from within. It is imperative that Muslims take active part in the electoral process to keep communism, communalism, fascism and other social evils at bay. The Jamaat has also lent support to parties like the Welfare Party of India in order to realize this requirement. The program concluded with a prayer, after a brief Q&A session.