Editing Islam and democracy (section)

===Secularist views===
{{main|Islam and secularism}}

In the modern history of the Muslim world, the notion of secularism has acquired strong negative connotations due to its association with foreign colonial domination and the removal of religious values from the public sphere. Traditional Islamic theory distinguishes between matters of religion (''[[Din (Arabic)|din]]'') and state (''dawla''), but insists that political authority and public life must be guided by religious values.<ref name=odi>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Secularism|editor=John L. Esposito|encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2014}}</ref> Some Islamic reformists like [[Ali Abdel Raziq]] and [[Mahmoud Mohammed Taha]] have advocated a secular state in the sense of political order that does not impose any single interpretation of [[sharia]] on the nation, though they did not advocate secularism in the sense of a morally neutral exercise of state power. The Islamic scholar [[Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im]] has argued for a secular state built on constitutionalism, human rights and full citizenship, seeking to demonstrate that his vision is more consistent with Islamic history than visions of an Islamic state.<ref name=arda /> Proponents of [[Islamism]] ([[political Islam]]) reject secularist views that would limit Islam to a matter of personal belief and insist on implementation of Islamic principles in the legal and political spheres.<ref name=odi/> Moreover, the concept of 'Separation of Powers' was propounded by [[Ruhollah Khomeini]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}