Freedom Report Shows Limited Freedom In Muslim Countries: Is Islam To Blame?
New Age Islam Edit Desk
Jan 21, 2013
Islam, many Islamists claim,
professes freedoms and human rights for its citizens but ironically it is the
Islamic countries that have been lagging behind in providing its citizens the
basic freedoms and liberties. According to a recent survey, titled Freedom of
the World 2013, published by the Freedom House, an NGO based in America, the
Islamic countries have disappointed those who boast of the human principles of
Islam based on the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Though the report also shows
that there has been a decline in the overall freedom in the world due to the
political, religious and social crises, it prominently comes out in the report
that the Muslim majority countries or Islamic countries have fared badly in
terms of political and civil liberties to their citizens.
The
survey has divided all the countries under three heads — free, partly free and
not free. The report says, “A Free country is one where there is broad scope
for open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties,
significant independent civic life, and independent media.
Partly
Free countries are characterized by some restrictions on political rights and
civil liberties, often in a context of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic
strife, or civil war.
A
Not Free country is one where basic political rights are absent, and basic
civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.”
It has rated the countries
on the basis of most free to the least free where 1 represents the most free
while 7 represents the least free.
Out of 197 countries and 12 “disputed”
territories like the two Kashmirs and Gaza strip, most of the Muslim majority
and Islamic counties have fared badly winning 7 out of 7 in both categories of
Political Rights and Civil Liberties.
A majority of Islamic
countries do not even have electoral democracy. Thus most of the countries have
got the worst marks, that is, 7 while the better ones have got 5 or 6. For
example, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan,
Bahrain, Brunei, Chad, Egypt, Kuwait,
Kazakhstan, Jordan, Libya, UAE, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Maldives and Mali. Oman, Qatar, Yemen and
Turkmenistan have got points from 5 to 7. It speaks of the lack of freedom and
liberties in these countries.
Worse, out of 47 countries 9 have been designated as
Not Free, and of them six are Muslim majority countries or monarchies. The
countries are Eritrea,
Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Only Muslim
countries that have scored 3 or below 3 is Indonesia that has scored 2 for
political rights and 3 for civil liberties. Other Muslim country that has
demonstrated a better score is Bangladesh with 3 for political rights and 4 for
civil liberties. Bosnia Herzegovina has scored 3-3 under both the categories.
The majority
of the Muslim countries with low marks that is highest in political insecurity
and violation of human rights are those that are going through civil and
political strife like Pakistan where terrorism, political instability and
Muslim-on-Muslim violence have earned it 4 and 5 for political rights and civil
liberties respectively. Similar is the case of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Libya,
Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq that are going through political and sectarian strife.
Iran also fares badly on freedom and liberties index as it has been cracking
down on journalists, writers, artists, bloggers and political opponents. The number
of death sentences was the highest during the year as political opponents were
sentenced to death. Last November famous blogger Baheshti died of torture in
police custody.
Another
country which is grappling with Sunni-Shia uprising against the dictatorship is
Bahrain, a Muslim majority country. It has rated 6 on both counts. The
political opponents as well as democracy and rights activists have been at the
receiving end of the dictatorship and freedom and liberty is at its worst in
this country.
Turkey had
though improved during the early years of Tayyip Erdogan’s tenure, of late it
has seen deterioration on the rights front as it leads in the incarceration of journalists
and advocates of democracy. Thus though it has got 3 for political rights, it
has earned a 4 for civil liberties. It has shown in a negative change that is a
decline in an overall situation of rights and liberties.
Most of these
countries with poor track record have 60 to 98 percent Muslim population. These
countries have not only demonstrated intolerance towards the minorities but
have also showed intolerance on the basis of ethnicity or linguistic prejudice.
Not only that the intolerance has been merely ideological and manifest in national
policies but also it has shown violent ramifications.
The findings
of the survey, therefore, lays bare the claims of the Muslims that Islam
ensures fair treatment to the citizens and grants equal rights and liberties to
its minorities. Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia are powerful
Muslim countries but have disappointed the world with their treatment of their
citizens.
Does that
mean that Islam has failed as a political system? Recent developments in
Maldives and Mali have only strengthened the belief that Muslims are not
satisfied with any system. When under dictatorship or monarchy, they fight or
rebel against the dictatorship but when they achieve democracy like in Egypt,
they begin their struggle for the establishment of a democracy governed by the
Shariah. And then persecution of minorities starts because of the wrong
interpretations of Islam by the narrow-minded scholars who are ignorant of the
essence of the teachings of Islam.
When Pakistan
was formed, Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular country like India but the
ambitious and narrow-minded mullahs of the country gradually turned it into a
Islamic country saying that Pakistan will be an Islamic republic.
However, they
could not rest at that. Now a section of Pakistan’s religious leadership has
been crying hoarse claiming that even a democracy based on Islamic principles
dominated by Muslims is not Islamic and only a caliphate is acceptable as the
form of government. This section calls the Pakistan government a system based
on kufr (non-belief) and only a
caliphate established or envisioned by the Taliban is a true Islamic form of
government.
It is
therefore clear that Muslims the world over lay undue stress on the external
form of the government and not on the inner soul of it where the delivery of
justice and good governance matters. In past, there existed a few monarchs
whose reign was more democratic than some of the best democracies of the modern
world.
It is very
unfortunate that none of the Islamic or Muslim dominated governments scored a 1
in the survey. The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany,
France, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands etc have got 1 both in
political rights and civil liberties. They are all Christian countries with a
sizeable minority population of Muslims and followers of other religions.
It’s time
Muslims and the rulers of Islamic countries shun violent approach to religion
and the problems of their collective life in the broader context of
multicultural necessities of the modern world.