Islam and Democracy: Can the Two Walk Together?

Political observers of the turmoil in the Middle East tend at times to confuse basic concepts in political philosophy and thereby limit the ability to assess the significance of these events and what they portend. This article focuses on the important distinction between Kantian enlightenment, which elevates human sovereignty and helped give rise to the secular, liberal democratic form of government, and the concept of democracy itself, created in the days of the Greeks years before there was any thought as to secularization and liberalism. The important distinction between the concept of democracy and the concept of secular liberalism invites new analyses that may also envision a true Islamic democracy in Middle East countries.