Islam was, after all, in its origins a social uprising against the oppressive and discriminatory practices of Arabian society.
Islam also took a stand on equality of race, gender, and social status at a time when equality was not the accepted norm. The Arab world does not believe that the United States is sincere about democratic reforms in their countries or in the region. Most Arabs believe that the United States is using democracy as a pretext for achieving narrow, shortsighted U.S interests and for stable, low, oil prices. They fault the United States for not speaking out on behalf of democracy when the culprits of tyranny are the U.S. allies, but become vociferous advocates of democracy when the culprits are foes. Islam lays the grounds for the values of freedom, justice and equality that are essential to democracy, more so than any other
religion or dogma. Muslims and Arabs neither will accept nor embrace democracy if they believe that it is foreign or alien to Islam. To those who continue to insist that Islam and democracy are not compatible, let me offer this pragmatic approach: Muslims see Islam not just as their religion, but also as their identity and culture. Some people want to promote democracy in the Muslim world by telling them: “we have this wonderful product for you. It is called democracy. It will solve all your
problems. It will take care of your political, economic and social problems. It will take care of your governance ills and give you prosperity. There is just one problem: it is not compatible with your religion. You have to choose either democracy or Islam”. Take a guess which one they will choose!