The Second Conference of Muslim-Christians Religious

TOR INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: In Search of Democratic Models in Muslim Countries 16 – 17 November, 2016 I. BACKGROUND Historically, democracy is an idea and set of practices that emerge in the Western secular idea which necessitates the separation of religion and state. Therefore, it can be fully understood that there has been strong debate and serious study about religion and democracy. In line with this, secularism and modernism theory have considered religion as the agent of authoritarianism and an obstacle for achieving modernity and rationality which are significant prerequisites of democracy. It is true that there has been no agreement among scholars as to whether or not religion and democracy are compatible. Alferd Stepan points out that while many scholars have argued that religion and democracy are incompatible, some scholars have argued that religion and democracy are compatible if religion is progressively understood and interpreted. In fact, In fact, the practice of secularism in Western countries is generally not too tight, so there is intervention or involvement of state in certain religious affairs, such as the existence of official religion, religious parties, religious education, state subsidies for religions, church tax, and others. A number of European countries give official status to religion (Christianity) and even recognize established churches, namely the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Greece. Stepan explains religious-state relations in democratic context with his theory of “twin tolerations”, which consists of religious citizens toward the state and state toward religious citizens. The theme of Islam and democracy continuously receives a great deal of attention from policy makers, scholars, the media, and even the general population of many countries in the world. Therefore, the phrase “Islam and democracy” is a theme continuously relevant to discuss. Although most Muslim countries identify their political system as democratic, in fact most of them continue to embrace their authoritarian system. Such a condition led to citizens’ protests and demonstrations in several Arab countries against their authoritarian governments. This brought about the emergence of Arab Spring in 2011 that promoted democratization process in many Arab countries. Yet the process in the most of them failed and even led to the emergence of serious problems as have occurred in Syria, Libya, and Egypt. Tunisia is the only Arab country that successfully conducted democratic transition. That shows that the political reality in the most of them indicates that Islam was incompatible with democracy. This assumption led some scholars to argue that the Muslims, who engage the Islamic movements as a temporary strategy in the process of democracy, imply their faint supports to democracy. In contrast to this opinion, John L. Esposito and John O. Voll contend that Islam does not inherently oppose democracy. There are certainly various opinions among the ulama as well as Muslim intellectuals and activists concerning the term and concept of democracy. Many of them claim that Islam and democracy are compatible. Yet there are several Muslim groups that refuse democracy, such as the Qutbiyyah faction of Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi and Hizb al-Tahrir groups. Until the early 1990s Turkey was considered as the only Muslim country that embraced substantive democracy, so that in 1994, Bernard Lewis wrote an article in The Middle East Quarterly, entitled “Why Turkey is the only Muslim Democracy?” In the late 1990s Muslim countries that implement democratic system increased by one, namely Indonesia, with the emergence of the reform, following the fall of the New Order regime in 1998. Then the Arab Spring made the number of democratic Muslim countries increased by one more, namely Tunisia, the only Arab country that successfully conducted democratic transition, following the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime in 2011. However, each country is today still facing certain problems, obstacles, and challenges at the stage of democratic consolidation. Turkey has serious problems after the abortive coup in July 2016, which indicates that Turkey does not longer substantively embrace democratic system. Hence, the Graduate School of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University is interested to conduct international conference on Islam and democracy. II. OBJECTIVES The general objective of the Conference is to identify the practices of democracy as well as to search models of democracy in Muslim countries. The specific objectives of the conference are: 1. To understand the compatibility of Islam and democracy 2. To describe and analyze practices of democracy in Muslim countries as well as their challenges and opportunities. 3. To describe best practices of implementing democracy education in Muslim countries. 4. To identify ideal models of democratic system in Muslim countries. 5. To recommend the importance of cooperation and sharing experiences among Muslim countries in the implementation of democratic system. 2 III. THEME The theme of the Conference is ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: In Search of Democratic Models in Muslim Countries. The sub-themes consist of: 1. The Compatibility of Islam and Democracy 2. Democracy in the Muslim Countries: Challenges and Opportunities 3. In Search of Ideal Democratic Models in the Muslim Countries 4. Democracy Education in the Muslim Countries IV. SPEAKERS The speakers in the Conference consist of two groups, namely: 6. Invited speakers: a. Dr. Radwan Masmoudi (CSID, tentative) b. Prof. Dr. Greg Barton (Deakin University, Australia) c. Prof. Dr. Azyumardi Azra, MA (UIN Jakarta) d. Prof. Dr. Din Syamsuddin, MA (UIN Jakarta) e. Dr. Hassan Johar (Kuwait) f. Prof. Dr. Moncef Abdul Jalil (Tunisia, tentative) g. Dr. Hamid Al-Slimi (Canada) h. Prof. Dr. Masykuri Abdillah (Director of Graduate School) 7. Selected speakers based on Call for Papers Jakarta, September 13, 2016 3 .

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