respectively. Muslim societies are also distinctively less permissive toward
homosexuality, abortion, and divorce.... These issues are part of a broader
syndrome of tolerance, trust, political activism, and emphasis on individual
autonomy that constitutes “self-expression values.” The extent to which a
society emphasizes these self-expression values has a surprisingly strong
bearing on the emergence and survival of democratic institutions. Among
all the countries included in the WVS, support for gender equality – a key
indicator of tolerance and personal freedom – is closely linked with a society’s
level of democracy.^35A central moment of one’s identity is gender, and as long as gender is both
essentialized and difference valorized, there will be barriers to modernity.
Without either material contradictions articulated by a class, or an ideo-
logical basis to impel a critical stance toward religion born by a powerful
class, or pressures toward the renegotiation of identities, save in Kemalist
Turkey, there have been few forces to foster a differentiation of Mosque, State
and everyday life.^36 While there has been a complex interplay of ideas and
influences in different Islamic societies, most European ideas from socialism
to nationalism, to popular democracy and, above all, secularism, neither pro-
duced new and lasting democratic changes nor were widely institutional-
ized.^37 Without the existence of a class or status group that might embrace
such a stance and embrace a critique and/or renegotiate identities, there was
neither a Reformation, nor strong indigenous pressures toward moderniza-
tion and secularization. Nor were there the kinds of checks and balances in
governance that might either constrain arbitrary power or share power with
other groups or even the community.
There are 47 countries with a Muslim majority; perhaps 12 are electoral
democracies, and none of the core Arabic-speaking has representative gov-
ernments. Autocratic governance such as in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, often
with a very thin veneer of democracy, e.g., Egypt, Jordan or Pakistan, is more
typical than genuine multi-party competition for parliamentary governance.
Yes there are elections, yet the process is so controlled that the sitting autocrat
From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim• 315(^35) http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0304clash.htm
(^36) This is not to assume that all Muslims are devoutly religious, but rather, there
are few spaces where critical or secular discourses can be publicly articulated. 37
While there were a number of modernist and reformist movements, Turkey is
always the “exceptional” case due to the modernist military revolt of Kemal Ataturk
and “enforced” modernization.