PSCI 2210 : COMPARATIVE POLITICS Bachelor of Political Science, KIRKHS, IIUM

1. Arab citizens’ views on the role of Islam in politics?
1) Support for political Islam and support for democracy
 Those who favour important role for Islam are not necessarily
expressing oppositionto democracy.
 A clear division opinion of Islam in political affairs is present
among those who supportdemocracy.But, the salient division is
between those who favor 1) seculardemocracy and those who
favor a 2) political system that is both democratic and Islamic.
Hence, support for democracydoes not necessarily mean support
for secular democracy.
- 78 - positive to democracy
- 22% - negative judgment to democracy.
- Among the supporters to democracy,the
percentage of those who supportpolitical role
for Islam in democracyis more than those
who support secular democracy.

2. 2) Political culture and democracy – There is no much difference
between those who support Islam and democracywith those who
supportdemocracyand do not favor Islam (secular democracy).
Extent of democratic political culture in the Arab world is
translated as the follows:
Independentvariables: Gender equality, level of tolerance, interpersonal
trust, level of civic participation [Indicators of democracy].
1) Genderand democracy:In democracy,the population must show
strong support to women’s rights and opportunities.
Resultin Arab world:Substantial support for genderequality but fewer
acceptances of women as political leaders.
2) Toleranceand diversity:In democracy,supportfor tolerance
prevents ethnic conflict;democracycan survives and function
(because of stability). Democracyalso requires all people to be
respectedin the eyes of the law. Without respect,citizens will not
be able to hold leaders accountable for their own actions. WHY ?
With no tolerance to diverse opinions, the citizens cannot criticize
government policies and actions or express views that the
majorities disagrees.

3. Resultin the Arab world:High level of tolerance – openness to diverse
political ideas and 2/3 rejects the propositionthat the political rights of
non-Muslims should be inferior to those of Muslims
3) Interpersonaltrusts: Citizens must trust one another in a
functioning democracy.How? They must believe that most women
and men are fair-minded, reasonable and they are the bestjudge
of how a country should be governed.
Advantages of citizens with high level of trust:
a) Insist better government – make government accountable,
hence responsive – when citizens will work together and
engage in collective action
b) Stable democracy– citizens understand the necessity of co-
operation and willing to compromisein a democratic regime –
lower level of demonstrations and protests)
Resultsin the Arab World:Low interpersonal trusts. For instance, 32%
says people can be trusted
4) Civic participation: Vibrant civil society to check the power of the
government. Interestgroups/ CSO allow citizens to monitor
government actions, articulate interests and exert political
influence. CSOs functions as training ground to learn politics- in

4. CSOs,people learn to organize, direct meetings circulate petition,
organizing demonstration.
Resultsin the Arab World:Levels of civic participation also low – only
1/5 belong to and organisation and 1/3 say they attended a campaign
rally or signed petition.
5) Political knowledge – Important and effective fordemocracy.
Those who are interested about politics are likely to follow political
affairs and participate in civic activities. Citizens are more likely to
monitor government policy. Citizens are more likely to participate
in politics and make informed assessments when an issue is
important to them and if they possess relevantpolitical knowledge.
Resultsin the Arab world – Moderate - Half of the respondents were
able to correctly identify their country’s foreignminister (46%) and
speaker of Parliament (50%).
Supportto politicalIslam [ in the system] – Who supports
democracy?Rich? Poor? Young?Old?
The explanatory reasons for the wide division between those who
supportsecular democracyand those who favor political system that are
Islamic and democratic can be assessed bylooking at the relationship
between personal attributes (IV) and support for political Islam
(dependentvariable).

5. (IV) Personalattributes:Income,Age,Education level, Gender (in
most instances no significant between personal attributes and support
for political Islam exceptfor a few countries)- It means the association
is not strong as the results did not reflectthe experience in all
countries.
o Gender wisethe data does not supportthe
propositions that women are more or less likely to
supportpolitical Islam than men in all countries.
Hence we should rule out the idea of gender linked
differences inpolitical system preference. Supportfor
Islam over democracyis disproportionately likely to a
significant degree among less educated individuals in
Palestine and Yemen,among youngerindividuals in
Palestine and poor families in Morocco.
Studies in political culture also find that among the large proportionof
Muslim Arabs who support democracy,those with strong attachment to
their religion (measuring the frequencyof reading Al-Quran and
importance of having one’s child marry someone who is religiously
observant, are disproportionatelylikely to favour political system.

6. Conclusion: Challenge the popular stereotypes that Islam and
democracyis not compatible as supportfor democracyand democratic
values are no less presentamong citizens with positive attitude towards
political Islam.