the Genesis story of Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib not actually present in the
texts, sustaining views of women as ‘‘ontologically inferior, subordinate, and
crooked’’ (Hassan 1991 , 67 , 81 ). 9
There are also many Muslim writers seeking to contest an emerging
consensus that Islam is incompatible with democracy, a conclusion advanced
both by Islamists insistent that popular sovereignty transgresses divine au-
thority as enshrined in Islamic law on the one hand and, on the other, by a
range of scholars and observers who argue that, for a variety of reasons,
cultural, political, historical, and psychological, Islam and Muslim rulers are
uniquely inhospitable to democracy and ‘‘the idea of freedom’’ (Lewis 1996 ).
Positioned against this odd convergence are a long line of thinkers from some
of the early Islamic modernists to contemporary Muslim democrats who
argue that there is much in Islam that is not only compatible with democ-
racy—understood both as a form of governance and as political practices of
inclusion—but actually provides mechanisms for its realization. 10 A case in
point is the principle of shura(consultation), a term that appears in the
Qur’an when Allah exhorts believers to ‘‘settle their aVairs’’ by ‘‘mutual
consultation’’ (Sura 42 : 38 ), and is reinforced by the admonition to believers
to ‘‘seek counsel’’ from their brethren in all aVairs (Sura 3 : 159 ). Ijma
(consensus), one of the most important bases of Islamic law, is another aspect
of Islam particularly conducive to interpretations consistent with democratic
practices, as it may mean anything from the consensus of those most qualiWed
to make decisions on juridical matters to the unanimous agreement of all
believers in theumma.
Rather than relying on a reinterpretation of such terms asshuraandijma,
however, the Iranian Abdolkarim Soroush has sought to subvert the binary
that renders Islam and democracy mutually exclusive by engaging in a double
move. TheWrst is to restore the historical context and conceptual complexity
to the term democracy, showing by argument and example that any inquiry
into the relationship between democracy and Islam requires interrogating the
often unacknowledged secular biases of ‘‘liberal democracy’’ and disentan-
gling liberal presuppositions from democratic politics (Soroush 2000 , 45 – 6 ).
9 See also Wadud ( 1999 ), Ahmed ( 1992 ), Mernissi ( 1991 ). For an alternative view to that proVered
by Hassan, see Moghissi ( 1999 ).
10 The literature on the relationship between Islam and democracy is extensive. See, for example,
Cohen and Chasman ( 2004 ), Esposito and Voll ( 1996 ), Mernissi ( 1992 ), and Butterworth and Zartman
( 1992 ).
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