On a Just and Righteous Government

Eid Al-Mubarek, wa kul al-am wa ant B'Khair.

What is the just and righteous form of government? In Islam, as I understand it, there is no divorce between the precepts of faith and the rule of government. On the contrary, there is to be unity in government with the religion of Islam. There is room for people of other faiths, but they will be subject to certain limitations or penalties. It is assumed that the perfection of Islam will lead to peace and a stable government.

I take no issue with this, per se. It is not democracy, but if this is how you choose to run your government, then so be it. However, we in the West are in a position today where we have recently established something we want to call a "democracy" in Afghanistan, where recently a convert to Christianity, Abd Al-Rahman, was sentenced to death. Fortunately he sought and found asylum in Italy. Apparently, it is an offense punishable by death to convert from Islam under Islamic law. I have the most problems with this tenet of Islamic law.

Our founding fathers came from an environment where religious differences had led to hundreds of years of warfare, often conducted with no regard for the human rights of innocents or captured prisoners. Religion had been used to oppress and even kill adherents of non-majority religions and sects. They rightly concluded that religion and political power are a dangerous combination which too often lets the worst of human nature hold reign, with no limits, due to the justification of religion. They precluded this from happening in the newly United States of America, enshrined in our First Amendment to the Constitution,

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Besides the obvious problems of religion combined with human political authority, there is a problem of conscience in religion. Can you be said to be a true believer when you only hold a faith because you are ordered to by the government? I think the answer is maybe, but that there will be many who are not true believers, but merely go through the motions without actually submitting to God. Perhaps the argument is that the good of society served by unity in religion outweighs this risk. I cannot agree to that argument. It undermines the integrity of the religion. The government can order you to adhere to a doctrine or practice which you believe to be wrong. By complying, you are going against the truth of your beliefs. This contradiction leads to either open rebellion or hypocrisy.

". . . Religion, or the duty which we owe the Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." This, from a declaration of rights for the constitution of Virginia's colonial legislature in 1776.

I believe that every government, whether a democracy or no, should include basic human rights, and that among these rights are the right to life and liberty, the right to freedom of conscience and the right of freedom of speech. This is justice in its most basic format, whether a country is Islamic or monarchic or socialist or democratic. There is no way to enforce this, unless we were to truly act on our principles and require these basic rights as a prequisite for any trade relations with any other country, regardless of what economic benefits might be gained. Naturally, this precludes trade with China and a few Middle Eastern countries. I am afraid we have let economy speak louder than justice and freedom. In doing so, we have undermined our own message of justice and freedom. Afghanistan is clearly no democracy, and I do not see it as being much better off than it was before if a man can be put to death for converting to a different faith.

IF we stood by our convictions I think our actions would speak much louder than our words. This is a source of much of the discontent and downright anti-Americanism in the world today. Large groups of people will hate us and wish us violence regardless, but this is no reason to further the contradiction between what we say we believe and what our actions show us to believe. Know the right thing and do it, and damn the consequences.