A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
The evils of democracy.
Since democracy is the political application of the theory of sovereignty,
its fundamental evil is that it enshrines polytheism (shirk) against Allah in governance,
which we have explained is an inevitable consequence of adopting and believing in the theory of sovereignty.
In it, democrats flee from the worship of rulers and popes to the worship of the masses and parliaments,
and from a tyranny exercised in the name of the divine right of the church and rulers,
to another tyranny exercised in the name of the divine right of the masses and parliaments.
We have begun to hear phrases such as "the sovereignty of law" instead of "the sovereignty of the Shari'ah."
And "no crime or punishment except by law" instead of "the forbidden is what the Shari'ah has forbidden."
And "the lawful is what the Shari'ah has permitted," and that is sufficient as the greatest evil of the disbelief inherent in democracy.
In addition to this primary evil in the democratic system,
democratic thinkers themselves have enumerated other flaws of democracy.
Among them, firstly, is that it is not, in reality, the rule of the majority,
because most people refrain from elections and do not participate in them,
as evidenced by the voter turnout percentages in elections.
Secondly, the owners of capital are the true controllers of the democratic system,
because they dominate the media, which is dependent on their wealth.
It is the media that shapes public opinion,
even through news, analyses, and false, deceptive propaganda.
Thus, opinion and governance do not truly belong to the majority,
but rather to the wealthy,
in order to achieve their interests and strengthen their political influence.
Thirdly,
the democratic system is based on political parties,
which are parties that differ in thought and methodology,
a difference that leads to friction and conflict among them,
instead of cooperation and synergy to achieve the interests of the country and its people.
Fourthly,
the principle of equality in electoral votes and referendums
does not distinguish between the vote of an expert with sound judgment and academic qualifications,
and the vote of a layman with limited thought and opinion,
which deprives the Ummah of effectively benefiting from the views of these qualified experts
to influence events.
Whereas the system of Shura in Islam achieves
the highest benefit from the expertise of those who are referred to as the people of binding and loosing (ahl al-hall wa al-'aqd).
Fifthly,
studies have shown that the average lifespan of governments in democratic systems over half a century
did not exceed eight months.
That is a brief period,
which does not enable any government to implement its reform and development plans and programs.
A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.