Thursday, October 27, 2011

The political thought of Rashid Ghannushi

I am obligated now to going back and re-reading his writings.  Yesterday, I was reading his Al-Huriyyat Al-`Ammah fi Ad-Dawlah Al-Islamiyyah (Public Freedoms in the Islamic State).  I trust his democratic credentials and impulses as much as George Habash trusted the revolutionary impulses of Yasser Arafat.  He makes it very clear citing the authority of the fanatical Islamist thinker, Muhammad `Amarah, that what he has in mind is a different democracy.  He states clearly that "Western democracies" are guided by laws, while his view of democracy is that it should be guided and guarded by Shari`ah.  The rule of the people has to be guided by "divine law."  He wrote those exact words (p. 316).  This needs an article in Al-Akhbar.