Around the world, democracy is in crisis. Should Christians and Muslims work to protect and revive it? Neither the Bible nor the Qur’an mentions the word “democracy.” At no point did the early followers of Jesus or Muhammad advocate for a democratic form of government. And yet Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid insist that Christians and Muslims should defend the wavering institution that is democracy. Why?

Links:

• Shadi Hamid’s new book The Problem of Democracy
• Islamist thinker Rachid Ghannouchi’s Public Freedoms in the Islamic State, translated into English for the first time
• Sayyid Qutb on freedom, excerpts from Milestones 
• See David Koyzis’s chapter on democracy in Political Visions and Illusions
• See Luke Bretherton’s chapter on populism and the voice of the people in Christ and the Common Good