John Voll Lecture Abstract

“Democracies, Modernities, and Islam(s)”

Talk at Notre Dame University by John Voll (Nov. 2005)

   Democracy does not come in just one model that fits all times and places. Similarly, modernity takes many forms, from early Western European industrial modernity to post-industrial/ post-modern forms in the 21st century. Across cultures, multiple modernities have emerged. The major world religions also reflect many different ways of expressing the vast repertoires of symbols and concepts that are the keys to their distinctive identities. Specifically, the core repertoire of great symbols and concepts of Islam is expressed in many different ways in diverse times and places.
    When we look at the relationships between democracy, modernity, and Islam in the modern and contemporary world, this diversity must be recognized. It is necessary to speak not simply of “democracy, modernity, and Islam,” but rather to look at “democracies, modernities, and Islam(s).” Any attempt to impose a single absolute definition of these terms makes it impossible to deal effectively with questions like: “Is Islam compatible with Democracy?” To answer that question, one must know “which Islam” and “which democracy”.
    This recognition of diversity is conceptually interesting but also has direct relevance for the development of policies and understanding contemporary events in the Muslim world and globally. It helps to clarify issues involved in a variety of movements and developments in the contemporary world. Recognition that democracy comes in many forms could help redefine aspects of constitutional development and polity construction in Iraq; recognizing the existence of multiple modernities helps to provide a framework for understanding the relationships between militant Muslim ideology and modernity; the whole broad range of diversities of democracies, modernities, and Islam(s) opens the way for a better understanding of the wide range of Muslim advocacies in the contemporary world.
    These considerations reflect the importance of recognizing, living with, and accepting many dimensions of diversity in the contemporary world. The great conflicts and tensions are not clashes of civilizations. They are conflicts between worldviews which are open to pluralism and those that are exclusivist and attempt to impose some kind of singular uniformity upon global humanity and individual societal parts of that broader global whole.