Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture

Democracy in Islamic Setting
Mehmet Nur Altinörs

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to study the present state of democracy in the Islamic world, to discuss factors establishing satisfactory democratic regimes and to speculate on future developments. Countries with at least % 50 of their population belonging to Islam religion may be called Islamic states. This definition does not necessarily refer to the type of the existing political regime. Muslim countries constitute the world's second largest religious group. It is estimated that there are 1.6 billion adherents making up over 22 % of the world population. Islamic countries are geographically located in northern Africa, the entire Middle East except Israel, partly in Central Asia and in the Far East ; Indonesia and Malaysia.There are important Muslim minorities in India,Russia and in major European countries.In the present era Middle East is the most problematic region of the world causing human disaster and presenting serious threat to peace and stability. Establishment of constitutional goverments elected by free choice of the people will serve not only to the region but also to the world peace.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jisc.v3n2a9