Editing Islam and democracy (section)

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{{Islam and other religions}}
{{Democracy}}

There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship between the religion of '''Islam''' '''and''' '''democracy''' (the form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state and democracy) among Islamic political theorists and other thinkers, the general Muslim public, and Western authors.

Many Muslim scholars have argued that traditional Islamic notions such as ''[[shura]]'' (consultation), ''[[maslaha]]'' (public interest), and ''[[Adl|ʿadl]]'' (justice) justify representative government institutions which are similar to Western democracy, but reflect Islamic rather than Western liberal values. Still others have advanced liberal democratic models of Islamic politics based on pluralism and freedom of thought.<ref name=OEIW /> Some Muslim thinkers have advocated [[Islam and secularism|secularist views of Islam]].<ref name=arda>{{cite web|publisher=Association of Religion Data Archives|title=Rethinking Islam and Secularism|first=John L.|last=Esposito|url=http://www.thearda.com/rrh/papers/guidingpapers/esposito.pdf|access-date=April 20, 2019|pages=13–15|archive-date=March 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329150639/http://www.thearda.com/rrh/papers/guidingpapers/esposito.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

A number of different attitudes regarding democracy are also represented among the general Muslim public, with polls indicating that majorities in the Muslim world desire a [[religious democracy]] where democratic institutions and values can coexist with the values and principles of Islam, seeing no contradiction between the two.<ref name=polls /><ref name=pew /><ref name=gallup />