Speech By H.E.Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey on “The Islamic World, Democracy And Development”(Oxford)

Dr. Nizami,

Distinguished Professors,

Dear Students,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to be at Oxford University, again. Those who track my work would know that I have always been keen in following the progress of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies very closely. As a member of the Board of Trustees, I am happy to say that Dr. Nizami and his team have done a great job with the Centre’s new building.

As the President of Turkey, I also take pride in, as we Turks say, having put some “salt in the soup” for the beautiful Turkish İznik tiles that bring an elegant ambience to the Centre.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is said that the purpose of education and research is to replace an empty mind with an open one. This is especially valid today regarding matters about the true nature of Islam.

For a quarter of a century, the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies has been performing a precious task in this respect, with its in depth studies of Islam, in a manner fit to the centuries old academic discipline of Oxford University.

Today, I want to talk about two issues that have been the subject of heated debates for some time. These debates have sometimes led to fresh ideas and inspiring discussions. Yet, they have also led to bitter divisions among our societies. These issues are democracy and development.

Many eternal Islamic values are just as valid today as ever, enlightening the path for a better world. They preach humanity, peace, progress, justice, generosity and empathy.

Such is the wisdom of the great Turkish poet and sage Yunus Emre who, eight centuries ago, called upon all peoples from all faiths to embrace each other in love, respect and friendship when he said, “Come here, let us make peace. Let us not be strangers to one another”.

With this understanding, I will try to discuss the notions of democracy and development in the Islamic world.

As the President of the Republic of Turkey, I will challenge the prepositions and debates as to whether Islam is compatible with democracy and liberal economic development.

In the final part, I will share my road map for Muslim societies for more democracy and development.

Distinguished Guests,

The ideas of ‘democracy’ and ‘development’, as we have come to accept them today, are the legacy of European Enlightenment. Nevertheless, due to the negative legacy of colonialism, most of the Islamic countries and societies felt alienated about these notions.

Therefore, for both terms, we need a qualified analysis. For this analysis, we have to look at the roots of the Islamic tradition.

The Islamic tradition takes its roots from the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon Him), but the Holy Book is not the only source.

The rich Islamic intellectual and civilizational tradition also combines the influences of the vast Mediterranean basin, as well as Persian and Turkic influences, the Indian subcontinental tradition, and the Chinese heritage. Hence, the diversity of Islamic tradition is still vivid today.

In the Holy Book and in the most authentic versions of Sunna, the individual has the right and obligation to conduct his or her actions and is held accountable only to the Almighty in the eternal sense. And no one, neither a cleric nor a king, can intervene in this relationship.

On that account, “absolutism” did not exist in the authentic Islamic state traditions. As a matter of fact, that was more or less the tradition of the Christian monarchs in Europe.

On the other hand, the idea of development in Islamic tradition is closely connected with the idea of city and society.

As the great Turkish-Muslim philosopher al-Farabi said in his timeless work the Virtuous City; the goal of any political system is to let its citizens lead a virtuous life; a life based on wisdom, justice, equality, solidarity, respect and friendship.

It is these values that have shaped the classical Islamic world and made it a truly universal civilization.

Therefore, the notions of development in Islamic tradition and that in European enlightenment have many commonalities and many fundamental differences, which are inseparable from each other.

In this qualified perspective, materialistic values such as “capital accumulation”, “personal wealth”, and “individual freedoms” surely contribute to the Muslim understanding of ‘development.

However, those notions are always balanced with concepts such as the “collective potential of the city”, “the wealth of the society as a whole”, and “the minimum requirements for a life of wisdom”.

As for democracy, I would argue that this notion, in its most authentic meaning, in its original Greek connotation, had already been in place in the Mediterranean basin. And the Islamic tradition was not alien to it.

Starting from the ‘Golden Age’, or ‘Asr-ı Saadet’ as we know it in Ottoman Turkish, the basic ideas of ‘city democracy’ were very much in use.

Our Prophet (Peace be upon Him) never acted on himself. He had his wise men representing different sections of city society. The period of Four Caliphs was the seal of democratic governance in the Islamic tradition.

The Abbasid period revived many of the institutions of democratic governance. The district courts, suburban mayors, mechanisms of “checks and balances” were in practice. There were no elections as we know today, but there were councils and advisory bodies.

The experience of Andalucía, on the other hand, was much broader and deeper in its experience of democracy, as it was more multicultural and multireligious.

Moreover, in all those Islamic traditions the utmost emphasized and respected notion was “justice”; not only for the Muslims, but also for the followers of other faiths.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One can argue that, until the colonial period, the Islamic world had no problems with the daily, practical experience of democracy and development. It was an integral part of daily life and state mechanism.

It is a result of long process of downfall of Islamic states and colonialism that democracy, a legitimate heritage of Mediterranean tradition, was transformed in Muslim eyes as the apparatus of the Colonial occupier: It became earthly, secular, infidel, colonial, and hence illegitimate. And more than anything else, democracy has lost its centuries-old organic tie with Muslim peoples.

Morever, the colonial experience led to a distinctive lack of political, philosophical, intellectual and discursive production in many Muslim countries.

It was not only the interests of the ruling classes and so-called ‘liberators’ in Muslim countries that blocked democratic governance, but it was also the lack of a native democratic understanding.

The Colonial past has relieved the Muslim peoples from the ability to write their own histories and fates. The only option presented to them were the ready-to-consume democracy and development recipes of the West which led to the deep-rooted alienation for these concepts in the Islamic world.

Distinguished Guests,

Our main task must start with breaking this deep- rooted alienation of the Islamic world as far as democracy and development are concerned.

We must convince all our sisterly societies that the current world is much more different and sophisticated than the era of the Enlightenment and colonialism or that of the Cold War.

We also have to engage in a pedagogic campaign to teach the true credentials of Islamic tradition with regard to democracy and development.

Furthermore, we must create political and economic conditions in which local ownership for democracy and human development can flourish in the Islamic world.

Finally, as we all know, any effective remedy requires an accurate diagnosis of the problem.

Therefore, I would like to underline some of the structural problems in the Islamic World.

First of all, I would like to emphasize that the level of economic and social development in most of the Islamic countries is way below their potential.

Islamic countries, home to vast natural resources, are not getting the share they deserve from global welfare. Islamic countries which make up 22% of the world population, have unfortunately only received around 7% of the global economic output in 2009.

The average per capita income in the Islamic countries is below the average of developing countries.

Poverty in Islamic countries tops the list of most serious problems that requires a solution. Twenty two of the OIC member countries are among the least developed countries. Wars, violence and natural disasters taking place in the Islamic territory have further aggravated poverty.

Moreover, the Islamic countries lag behind the world standards in social realms of development like education and health. The rate of literacy in the Islamic countries is below the global average.

I would like to highlight a point in this respect. Sustainable development can only be ensured through consistent, transparent and accountable governments.

In this matter, administrative structures that value political and social participation are needed. By doing so, the legitimacy of our governments will expand and they will become more stable and at peace with shared values of our peoples.

Distinguished Guests

As I first voiced in my speech at the OIC Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tehran in 2003 and stressed on various occasions since, putting the total blame on others is the easy, yet the futile way out.

Self criticism is the most honorable virtue and something the Islamic world should resort to more often.

We have to put our house in order. And to that end, we must be bold, confident and visionary. Fresh ideas and an open horizon should complement our spiritual richness, creating a synergy that will be our driving force worthy of this modern age.

I think the main starting point is to be able to translate our peaceful, tolerant and affectionate heritage into effective mechanisms that will pave the way for more freedom, democracy and development.

This would not only be just a logical choice, but also a natural course of action.

In fact, development and democracy are the key mottos set forth by the new phase of globalization that we are all passing through.

This phase is producing its broad repercussions in almost every aspect of life. No society is immune to this tremendous transition.

Democracy, human rights, good governance and accountability are neither a luxury nor an option anymore.

And let me mention one crucial point to perhaps make sense of it all: In my opinion, universal values consist of the aggregate achievements of humanity to which the Islamic civilizations made huge contributions.

We must make sure that the universal values, among a few which I have just mentioned, should be allowed to flourish as they are meant to be.

In other words, we should not interpret them with a tailor-made fashion that may suit us best or resort to cultural relativism.

The first step in the right direction should be an all-encompassing initiative towards eradicating illiteracy, corruption and waste of human, natural and material resources.

Fertile conditions for violence should be identified realistically and a conscious effort should be made to wipe them out, sooner rather than later.

Countries with predominantly Muslim populations have had so much more than their fair share of conflict.

Friction, antagonism and in the extreme, war, produced nothing but devastation, wasting human and material resources, depriving peoples of the bright future they deserve.

Efforts solely focusing on the security-politics dimension will be incomplete unless nourished by the economic and social channels.

As such, we must never lose sight of the fact that economic well-being and political stability go hand-in-hand.

Therefore we must aim at higher living standards for all as well as reducing income disparities and the urban-rural divide.

And at the social front, we must keep in mind that progress is an empty word unless it is actually reflected on the masses. Therefore we must create a suitable environment to boost up human development.

Gender equality is a must. Women must have the opportunity to do their utmost in advancement. They must have access to all rights, ranging from basic education to political representation.

For instance, we take pride in the fact that women in Turkey achieved the right to vote and to be elected to public office seventy six years ago, but we are equally sad about the fact that only 10 % of our parliamentarians are women.

Children too, especially girls must be given the chance to follow the future they wish to live. We must take the necessary measures to make sure that at least basic education is provided to all.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please do not take what I have said to the effect that Muslim countries have not done anything thus far.

On the contrary, a closer look into Muslim countries will clearly show some very promising indicators in this respect.

Many of these countries are developing economically with a growing and enhancing mid-income group. Their GNPs are on a rise. This will surely ease the process of democratization in many respects.

But perhaps something even more noteworthy is the progress in education and vocational training with the special attention and resources given to research and development projects in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Just look at the vivid global repercussions of the Bangladeshi economist Dr. Muhammed Yunus’s concept of microcredit. He brought a fresh insight to the notion of providing credit to small farmers and vendors with no collateral and received the Nobel Prize for economy four years ago.

Such developments nurture democratic advancement which in turn provides an even better environment for their progress. I am confident that this desired trend will go on, producing fruitful results.

And believe me; my confidence is much substantial because it has been proven effective by Turkey.

We managed to build a strong economy and a solid democracy based on contemporary universal values and standards. This enabled us to assume a central position in Eurasia and to increasingly contribute to international peace and security.

Dear Fellows,

In recent years, Turkey has become a source of inspiration as a shining and rare example in the Islamic world of a vibrant democracy and a flourishing free-market economy.

We will continue to struggle to bring the distant ones closer. Turkey strived through the Islamic Conference Organization to further promote such universal values and worked hard for their insertion into the new Charter of the Organization.

It was an important development in the right direction and a significant gain for the Organization.

Likewise, we have launched the Alliance of Civilizations initiative with Spain five years ago. We aim at galvanizing an international effort to facilitate interreligious and intercultural dialogue and the process.

These are merely a couple of examples of what Turkey has done and of what the Muslim world has the potential to do.

On the other hand, you will recall that a while ago, when talking about self criticism, I mentioned about the futility of putting the total blame on others. I suppose you will concur with me now when I say that bearing total responsibility is also very unjust.

The West also has important homework to do in this respect. If the democratic progress boat is to move forward, it will do so by both oars paddling harmoniously together.

The West must try harder to understand better. The term “alienation” sums up everything that should be avoided.

Being respectful and sensitive to different religions is at the core of Western democratic thought, so they should live up to it. Looking at matters as “us” and the “others” is grossly wrong.

Moreover, the political economy of the global system continues to be unfair and unjust for many of Muslim countries.

The lack of justice in the international arena, politics of the privileged, impotence of international bodies all contribute to the lack of democracy in Muslim countries. The plight of Palestine and the war in Iraq are the two recent examples in point.

These factors continuously undermine the belief of Muslims to democratic institutions.

Today, we are living in an era of constant change and transformation. One can easily say that never has interaction among societies been as dense and vibrant as it is today.

This robust interaction brings about plenty of new opportunities for cooperation. Then again; the serious problems that we continue to face can still severely shadow our optimism.

Furthermore, during the last couple of decades or so, these problems have become so composite and multifaceted that even a slightest step in the wrong direction can be a torch thrown on fuel.

However, if all these endeavours are carried out sincerely, both by the East and the West, then this means that many of the problems we face today are already on the road for solution.

In practical terms this means that whatever subject is being debated, the human dimension must always be given proper attention. Otherwise the already fragile situation can easily get worse.

In this respect, the prime method for tackling complex challenges actually boils down to one simple word: “Dialogue”.

Dialogue need not be a rare commodity, like it may seem to be nowadays. It will open the doors of conciliation while closing the ones that lead to conflict.

We must not be shy in discussing even the most rooted of problems with everyone regardless of his or her faith. We must aim at finding common ground.

In trying to convince the other, we may easily find that some of what we hear actually is already within us.

This will no doubt make us better and richer individuals and societies. It will also bring us one step closer to the good character Islam orders for one to be.

Let me finish here. But before concluding, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Oxford University and the Centre for its efforts in to shed light on the rich, humane and compassionate character of our holy faith. It is through such studies that efforts to cast clouds over Islam will be rendered futile in a contemporary and academic manner.

Thank you.