Part 2 What Basis for Statehood: Religion or Citizenship?, 2.2 Islam and the Constitutional State: Are They in Contradiction?

The relationship between Islam and democracy is a highly controversial question much debated by experts in the social sciences, political sciences, and constitutional law. The aim of this modest contribution to the debate is not to put forward a theoretical answer to that question; it will be future developments in Arab countries that will tell us whether or not democracy can be compatible with Islam—or in other words, whether the fall of a dictator or the collapse of an authoritarian regime can produce regimes based on free and transparent elections, the peaceful...