Islam and Democracy Project

About the Project

The Islam and Democracy Project was established within the Department of Church-State Studies at Baylor University in 2003 with the intent of serving as a repository of information and a forum for dialogue related to the study of the encounter between Islam and liberal democratic cultures and principles. The Project has no agenda of its own; it seeks only to make a positive contribution to the discourse between Western and Muslim political theorists, religious leaders, and concerned laypersons in the attempt to identify points of similiarity and difference in the political philosophy and values of the respective cultures.

The Islam and Democracy Project seeks to perform five principal functions: to facilitate dialogue for interested parties who wish to discuss developments in Muslim politics; to chronicle political and economic developments in the Muslim world; to electronically publish essays by scholars on issues concerning Muslim political thought; and to maintain links to similar websites and centers. Editorials, book reviews, notes and comments on Islamic political developments, bibliographies, governmental and statisical reports, and other types of information will be collected in this project and published on this website to better inform the vistor about Muslim politics.

Contributors to this project make no particular claim to expertise in Islamic political philosophy. Rather, the Islam and Democracy Project was begun by Baylor University students in the Church-State Studies and Political Science departments who are concerned with the chasm between Western and Islamic political thought and the all too casual assumptions about philosophical differences between them. The idea behind this project is to bring interested parties together in the facilitation of dialogue, research and the exchange of ideas that might contribute to mutual understanding.