Suchergebnisse

The argument of Roy's "The Transformation of the Arab World" in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of Democracy is threefold. First, the circumstances in which the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups such as the Salafists have reached power have also put them "into a political space formatted by certain constraints." Second, the Islamists are aware of this situation and they have bent or will bend to it. Third and finally, if they do not "accept the demands of the democratization process... they will find themselves sidelined." So whether the Islamists cooperate or not, democratization will triumph. All this may eventually prove true. At the moment, however, the political evidence tends strongly in a different direction. Adapted from the source document.

"'Für den Islam gibt es keine Unterscheidung zwischen Religion und Politik'. Diese zum Gemeinplatz gewordene Aussage antwortet auf die von muslimischen Führern häufig gebrauchte Formel: 'Im Islam gibt es keine Religion und keinen Staat'. Sie findet auch in der Gründung des Islams und in einigen seiner wichtigsten Lehren eine starke Unterstützung. Tatsächlich hat die Einheit von Religion und Politik einen alles überwölbenden Rahmen für das muslimische Selbstverständnis geliefert, und der Versuch, sie zu erreichen, spielte in der muslimischen Geschichte eine große Rolle. Er tut es noch heute, ja er wird heute mit neuer Energie betrieben." (Textauszug)

Abstract:
The argument of Roy's "The Transformation of the Arab World" in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of Democracy is threefold. First, the circumstances in which the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups such as the Salafists have reached power have also put them "into a political space formatted by certain constraints." Second, the Islamists are aware of this situation and they have bent or will bend to it. Third and finally, if they do not "accept the demands of the democratization process . . . they will find themselves sidelined." So whether the Islamists cooperate or not, democratization will triumph. All this may eventually prove true. At the moment, however, the political evidence tends strongly in a different direction.

Abstract: The question of the relationship between Jews and Judaism, on the one hand, and democracy on the other, is of extraordinary complexity. It requires examining both the Jewish religion, and above all its holy book, the Hebrew Bible, plus three thousand years of Jewish historical and political experience. Today, Jews everywhere are among democracy's strongest supporters and the Jewish state, modern Israel, is the only securely democratic regime in the entire Middle East. The Bible cannot exactly be called a handbook of modern political democracy, but it does often recommend an ethical approach of working toward the good or righteous with and through flawed human persons and institutions, and approach that has a certain affinity with modern democracy's need for sobriety, moderation, and prudence.

Even a casual glance at the list of Leo Strauss's writings devoted in whole or in part to medieval Jewish texts is sufficient to make clear that in any ordinary sense he left a substantial legacy to this field of study. They include two books, Philosophy and Law and Persecution and the Art of Writing, the monograph length essay which serves as the introduction to the English translation of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed done by Shlomo Pines and a number of articles.Moreover it is relatively clear that his study of these texts form an important part of his legacy as such. They remained important to his inquiries through his long scholarly career and do not belong only to one phase. Several of the articles devoted to such texts, he chose to republish in subsequent volumes concerned with major themes of his work. More important still, even towards the end of his life when his work was largely devoted to classical Greek texts, medieval Jewish texts continued to play some important role. The last work planned by Strauss, Studies on Platonic Philosophy, contains new, albeit short, treatments of Maimonides' Treatise on Logic and his Letter on Astrology which are the only essays first published in this book.

Benedict Spinoza is the first philosophical proponent of liberal democracy. In his Theologico-Political Tractate he calls for the liberation of philosophy from theology and for the subordination of religion to politics. Though Spinoza may have not influenced the American Founding Fathers directly, both the clarity and the paradoxes of his arguments are perhaps the best guide to understanding better the present-day conflicts over religion and politics in the United States. Spinoza's insistence on the prerogative of the political sovereign to exercise absolute authority in the sphere of moral action necessarily complicates religious values. But the "inconveniences" resulting from liberal democracy are justified in terms of justice.