ROSWITHA BADRY, Die zeitgenössische Diskussion um den islamischen Beratungsgedanken (šūrā): Unter dem besonderen Aspekt ideengeschichtlicher Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten. Freiburger Islamstudien, Bd. 19 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998). Pp. 654.

Extract

While contemporary Muslim countries are not exactly textbook democracies, the desire for (more) popular participation in the political decision-making process exists. With the current polarization of anything Western as bad and anything Islamic as good (one notices the opposite use of these adjectives by some Westerners), the odds are low that Western political systems will provide the vocabulary to articulate demands for popular participation. Many Muslims look to the concept of shūrā, which broadly means consultation, to address the problem. Shūrā is considered a truly Islamic principle because it is mentioned in the Qurءan, practiced by the Prophet Muhammad, and makes up part of classical Islamic thought. The Qurءanic and sunnaic references, however, are very general, and early Islamic history imbued the actual practice of consultation with the negative connotation of fitna, or civil unrest. Nevertheless, in the modern period, Muslim authors took renewed interest in the concept of shūrā to structure their political landscape.