A Critique of Salafists Viewing Democracy as Heresy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 دانشجوی دکترای دانشگاه ادیان و دانش‌آموختۀ مؤسسه دارالإعلام لمدرسة أهل‌البیت
2 استاد حوزه علمیه قم و موسسه مذاهب اسلامی
Abstract
Inspired by their predecessors, Jihadi Salafists consider democracy as forbidden, a form of ‎associating partner with Allah, heresy and idolatry. They argue that democracy is opposed to ‎oneness of sovereignty or the concept of divine unity and it is also in contravention with what ‎Allah, the Exalted, has revealed in the Quran; it is synonymous with idolatry or Taghut and ‎that is the reason why democracy is viewed by Jihadi Salafists and their followers as heresy. ‎Contrary to them, the proponents of democracy are of the view that by adopting democracy ‎as a procedure – not religion – it is possible to adhere to divine laws and reconcile between ‎Islam and democracy and respond to the antagonistic and spurious arguments put forth by the ‎opponents‎.
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