伊斯兰与西方文明所蕴涵的民主价值观之比较

在西方基督教文化和中东伊斯兰文化中,都包含着构成民主观念的本质要素。这两种宗教强调的一神论信仰,都奠定了平等这个民主思想核心价值观的逻辑基础。同时,伊斯兰宗教强调的“协商”、“公议”、“尽力而为”等观念,都是培养公民社会和建立民主制度所必须的因素。近代以来,尽管民主在西方国家和伊斯兰国家有着截然不同的发展,但并不能因此否认伊斯兰文化中同样包含着民主的成分,更不能以伊斯兰文化缺乏民主因素作为西方国家改造阿拉伯-伊斯兰国家的借口。

A Comparative Analysis on the Democratic Values Contained in Islamic and Western Cultures

Both Western Christianity culture and Middle East Islamic culture contain the essential factors of the democratic idea. The monotheist faith in these two religions has established the logic basis of the equality, the core value of the democratic idea. At the same time, the concepts such as consultation, Ijma, Ijtihad also have been the necessary complications in training the civic society and building the democratic system. In the past centuries, though the democracy was much differently developed in Western nations and the Muslim nations, it will not be the reason for the Western nations to deny that the Islamic culture also contains the elements of democracy or to take military actions to carry out democratic reform in the Arab-Islamic nations.