Italy: Arab Spring Shows Democracy Compatible with Islam Says Berlusconi

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Deauville - The unrest that has shaken the Arab world over the past six months and ousted two of the region's autocratic leaders shows that Islam is compatible with democracy, Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told said on Friday.

"The principle has been established that democracy is not only compatible with western countries and their civilisations, and I believe this is very important," Berlusconi told journalists at the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France.

The stirrings of democracy seen in the popular revolts that have taken place in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and other Arab countries are the latest in an "extraordinary period of history" that has unfolded over the past 25 years, he said. » | AKI | Friday, May 27, 2011

How on earth can Berlusconi come to this ridiculous conclusion from the ‘Arab Spring’? The ‘Arab Spring’ shows that the Arabs yearn for freedom of expression, yearn for a different governance, another way of life, another way of being ruled. Precisely what the uprisings do not show is that Islam and democracy are compatible. First of all, we have yet to observe what the outcome of these revolutions will be? Secondly, the sine qua non of democracy is that there be a separation of church and state. In the case of Muslims, that would mean a separation of mosque and state. This is absolutely forbidden in Islam. There is no concept in Islam of such a separation. In fact, there is no concept in Islam of the secular. In Islam, life is meant to be one coherent whole, the 'secular' and the religious and the political all meld into one. So clearly, Silvio Berlusconi needs to go away and do some serious homework. And not of the bunga bunga variety, either! Something rather more profound, something rather more taxing (mentally), and something rather more intellectual.

Ruhollah Khomeini said: "In Islam, the legislative power and competence to establish laws belong exclusively to God Almighty." In a democracy, the opposite is true. Further…

“Secularism cannot be a solution for countries with a Muslim majority or even a sizeable minority, for it requires people to replace their God-given beliefs with an entirely different set of man-made beliefs. Separation of religion and state is not an option for Muslims because is requires us to abandon Allah's decree for that of a man['s].” [Source: Islaam.com: Separation of Church and State] | Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris ]

– © Mark