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Accountability without Democracy
It is a prominent view that accountability and true 'people authority' cannot be established without the democratic framework. Democracy espouses secularism, which presupposes that there is at least a formal separation of religion and state. It is widely believed that religion does not allow accountability and western history bears testimony to this from the era of the Church's dominance.
In western secular democracies we find that the processes by which the community is involved in their political determinations do not necessarily reflect 'people power'. It is assumed that the government sometimes has to take 'unpopular' decisions as people of authority. If the power of democracy is in accounting its government every 4-5 years, electing or removing her from power by the ballot box, one could argue that is too little and too late. Democratic governments exhibit symptoms of authoritarianism, especially when it comes to issues of national security or foreign policy. Having courts of justice where a case can be brought against the authority is not unique to democracy as we saw earlier in the case of the Islamic court of the Mazaalim, which has the jurisdiction to remove the ruler if he oversteps the boundaries of Shari'ah.
Also, political parties that proscribe to a secular creed are not necessarily the only 'guardian angels' who can ensure accountability of their authorities. Political parties who proscribe to an Islamic creed regardless of their numbers are also fully capable of performing this honourable function of accounting the ruler. Indeed, this is pivotal in the Islamic political system to ensure an authority that is accountable.
Conclusion
To argue that the call to Islamic political authority would constitute suffocation of the right to account authority and the abrogation of 'people power' does not carry weight if reference is made to the Islamic sources and the practices of the Prophet and his Companions. All political systems tend towards authoritarianism, as they need to regulate the societies they govern - that is natural. The authoritarian regimes that Muslims face in their lands today are not the legacy of their Islamic past but the bitter aftertaste of the post-colonialism era. Most of these authoritarian regimes are, by their nature, despotic and repressive and rely on the goodwill of their historic masters to maintain the status quo.
The Divine is beyond accounting but He does not extend that status to the humans in authority trying to understand and implement the Divine Will.
The ability to hold the political authority to account in Islam is linked intricately to the independence of the judiciary from the state. Also, if political parties neglect the duty of 'commanding the right and forbidding the wrong' in modern political terms, this can lead to authoritarianism. The Muslims can examine their own rich legal history, rather than refer to others with conflicting values, to find ways to establish authorities that are accountable.
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- Patricia Crone & Martin Hinds "God's Caliph", Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp 24-59
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- " O you who believe, Obey Allah, Obey His Messenger and those in authority from amongst you and if you differ then refer it to Allah and His Messenger if you believe in Allah and the Last Day",The Qur'an 4:59.
- Sami Zubaida, "Law and Power in the Islamic World", London, .I.B.Tauris & Co. 2003, pp 51-56
also see, Samih Atef El-Zein, "Islam and Human Ideology", translated by Elsayed M.H. Omran,, London and New York, Kegan Paul International, 1996, p 282.
- Michael Cook, "Commanding the Right and Forbidding the Wrong in Islamic Thought", Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p 13
- The Qur'an, see also Q3:110, Q3:114, Q7:157, Q9:71, Q9:112, Q22:41, Q31:17.
- Supra note 45, p 39
- Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, "The Ruling System in Islam",5th Edition, London, Khilafah Publications, 1996, p 289.
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