Islam and democracy

Juan Cole at his Informed Comment blog recently described some economic and political developments in the Muslim countries of Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia in Turkey and Indonesia Muslim Success Stories; Economic Upturn in Egypt 01/01/08. Popular commentary in the United States tends to focus on Arab Muslim nations, though Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan obviously get some attention, as well. But, as Cole reminds us, the world's largest Muslim country in terms of population is Indonesia:

Democracy appears to be entrenching itself in Indonesia, which is a secular democratic state with a Muslim majority. Neither of the two major parties is interested in moving toward a theocracy. [Can we say that in the United States? - Bruce] The country had a peaceful transition in the presidency in 2004, and weathered the devastating tsunami the following year. The economy is doing well, a 6.3% growth rate and a 10% increase in exports. The Jemaah Islamiyah, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, turns out to have no grass roots in the country, and the horrific Bali bombing of a nightclub was more an echo of the 1980s Afghanistan jihad than a harbinger of the future. Although there are Muslim parties that want to make Islamic law the law of the land, they are peaceful and small, and are unlikely to get their way, at least any time soon. Indonesia is the world's fourth-largest country, with a population of 234 million. It is also the largest Muslim country in the world (about 201 million are Muslim). While it has a fairly restrictive press law on government information, it is a genuine democracy by any measure, with some 800 newspapers that publish freely without government censorship. It is instructive that Indonesian newspaper editorials have seen Pakistan's current crisis as a result of military rule, and have generally agreed that their country avoided such crises by democratizing from 1999. Tom Ginsburg argues that Indonesia is among a handful of "third wave" democratizations that have been success stories, and he notes that many of them (Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, & Mongolia) are in Asia. He contrasts Muslim Indonesia's success with the return to forms of authoritarianism in Russia and the rise of authoritarian populism in Latin America. (my emphasis)

Tags: indonesia, islam, juan cole