Can Islam have a democratic future? It has a glorious past and present

That certainly does not happen in many countries in the heartland of Islam. They were not forced by circumstances, while countries like Malaysia were. Malaysia and Indonesia are open societies that have to negotiate and mediate between various conflicting values and cultures.

Unfortunately, a historical moment like in Christianity in the West, where you had to separate the Church from the State has not occurred in Islamic history. The moment when intellectual research could be done independently of the great religious leaders has not occurred in the countries of Islam. This is because the kind of Islam that is patronised, promoted and encouraged has to be the type that the regime feels comfortable with.

In Saudi Arabia it has to be Wahabi, nothing else. In Iran, if you want to do research, if you want to evolve Islamic thought into modernity, you have to subscribe to Shi'ite dogma not Sunni. I am sure it is similar in every other Islamic country. In the past however, when Islam was growing, flourishing and prospering, the freedom to search, investigate, reason and rationalise was extremely open.

I think it is time to complete the loop. My suggestion is that the West, the Muslim countries and the Muslim people should get together and transfer what has been achieved, developed and innovated in the West, back into the Muslim world. If you leave Muslims behind, frustrated, hopeless and bitter like in Afghanistan and in other places, they will become a source of instability.

What happened on September 11 gave us a lesson. That was the first major global event that was experienced in real time around the world. We have to help each other to grow into a more open and egalitarian global society and complete that loop back into the Muslim World.

The kind of research and studies that needs to be done is particularly difficult. You cannot do it with the regimes looking behind your shoulders telling scholars not to deviate, not to bring any outside elements or their own ideas.

Research on Islamic studies can be done effectively outside of the Muslim world by Muslims and by others. Oxford University has just established a Centre for Islamic Studies. Harvard has had one for some time. There are also centres in Chicago and Princeton. Great scholars from the Muslim world staff them.

A Centre for Democratic Institutions like this can help. Complete that loop. Train Islamic students, scholars and Muslims so that they can help propel their own society into this era of globalisation.

For so long humanity has lived in the cave, as Plato describes it. We live with symbolism, with our prejudices, our faith and our beliefs. Now with technology, science and the capacity that we have, I think we are capable of walking out of the cave. We live with certain stereotypes of each other. These stereotypes might portray a particular group by saying it cannot change, be democratic, progress and diversify. Surely humanity should walk out of the cave and allow the light to shine.

I think the Muslims are just like any other human beings, aspiring to move forward but frustrated by the present circumstances that they find themselves in. I think you should feel sympathy with some of the problems they are facing. With all the power at our disposal in the world, somehow we could not solve the problems of the Palestinians. With all the powers we have we could not solve the problems of backwardness and of illiteracy not only in the Muslim world, but also in many other places.

In the age of globalisation there is no Christendom, no Islamic world, no east, no west, no south, no north. Therefore help each other. Help the Muslims attain their own true renaissance. The road to that renaissance that many of them are aspiring for is openness and democracy.