ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: THE PROBLEM OF COMPATIBILITY

Abstract

Introduction. The article, based on a critical analysis of the range of opinions on the compatibility of democracy with Islam, the peculiarities of the Islamic understanding of the state-political organization of the life of the Muslim Ummah, and consideration of the modern experience of reforming individual Islamic states, identifies the importance of implementing democratic reforms in them, which, firstly, must correspond to the fundamental principles of Islam, its ideological and political values, and secondly, take into account the peculiarities of their history, culture, and political traditions. Methods. A comparative analysis of the interaction of democracy with Islam allows us to discover not only general political trends in a number of societies, but also to record the patterns of socio-political processes, and the historical and cultural approach makes it possible to predict the future of social systems where Islamic values dominate. Discussion. The study highlights the ambiguous consequences of democratic reforms carried out in Muslim countries by copying the institutions of liberal democracy that have proven effective in Western countries and are presented as universal democratic values that need to be adopted by all countries and peoples of the world. Conclusions. The article establishes that the reason for the contradictory nature of democratic reforms implemented in Islamic countries is, among other things, the lack of an adequate understanding of the essence of Islamic democracy, which correlates with Islamic values, from which the urgent need for the unification of efforts of Islamic intellectuals to develop a political theory of Islamic democracy is derived.