The universal principles on which the people of West have established their consensus after periodic experimentation and protracted struggle was emphasised by Islam 1400 years ago as the basis of its teachings and ideals. Islam guarantees the protection of civil, religious and fundamental freedoms of citizens living within an Islamic state irrespective of their caste, creed, colour and race. Contrarily, no such concept existed in Western societies about a century ago. The overriding difference between western and Islamic societies is that in Islamic states, society was value-based while in western countries the values were society-based. Law-making is carried out on the basis of divine and universal principles in Islam, while legislation in the western world reflects the collective desires of societies.

These views were expressed by Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri, President of MQI’s Federal Council during his keynote speech on the subject of “Modern democracy with its roots in Islam” at the University of Copenhagen. Abdul Sattar Siraj, deputy head of Minhaj European Council, newly converted Abu Bakar, Spokesman of MQI Norway, Mates Abdul Malik, convert from Argentine and hundreds of members of Minhaj Youth League and Minhaj Women League attended the Conference.

Throwing light on the principle underlining the election of rightly guided Caliphs to highest offices, Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri maintained that the Holy Prophet (SAW) had said fourteen centuries ago that two were better than one, three than two and four than three, adding that this is how the Prophet (SAW) established the principle of representative and participatory democracy. He said that those who subscribed to teachings of their beloved Prophet (SAW) could not violate or reject the system of democracy. He said that presidential or parliamentary system of democracy could be adopted depending on peculiar regional location of a country, collective orientation of the people and imperatives of governance.

Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri quoted Prophetic Traditions to support his discussion on the subject and said that there could be no greater argument in favour of democratic system than the saying of the Holy Prophet (SAW) wherein he said to Hazrat Abu Bakar (RA) and Hazrat Umar (RA) that if both of them agreed to a viewpoint contrary to his personal opinion, he would not only respect that agreed-upon opinion and but also act upon it.

Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri said that if man’s character and conduct was not in sync with his ideals and ideology, a mere claim of invoking Islam did not have any meaning. He said Islam stands for patience, peace, tolerance, gratitude and respect of humanity. These virtues must be reflected from our conduct and how we go about doing things in life. He said that Minhaj-ul-Quran International was engaged in a sustained struggle to draw the Muslims to this Islamic ideal and shape their character along these lines. There are many a people who raise similar slogans but very few are proponents of peace who seek to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims and practically struggle to translate this slogan into reality. Islamic ideals of democracy are very relevant to the Islamic world and need to be employed to build representative, and accountable governments.