Democracy and Islam have the potential to be very flexible and mobile concepts, as Noah Feldman would put it. Islam has shown a great deal of flexibility and mobility in its application within many different cultures and societies from Morocco, to Egypt, to Saudi Arabia, to Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa. Democracy has flourished in many different parts of the world. There is no particular problem with democracy that should not allow it to also flourish in the Arab world.

As a matter of fact, the Arab world is ripe for it. The problem is that some Arab leaders do not want it. They would rather have their power, wealth, and wasta (connections), rather than the deserved peace, prosperity and justice for their people. If the flexible and mobile sides of democracy and Islam are allowed to flourish and develop then we all may have greater hopes for peace, prosperity, and freedom. Without democracy there is no freedom. If the inflexible sides of each of these concepts is allowed to develop more so they we should all expect more trouble, more war, and more terrorism.

There is no doubt that Islam and democracy can occur at the same time in many different places in the world, if the people in these places are allowed to work through amongst themselves what combination of Islam and democracy would work best for them. The concepts of shura (consultation), ijma (consensus) , and ijtihad (interpretation) are Islamic concepts that can be used to develop greater freedoms and democracy in Islamic contexts for many people.

The process of melding Islam and democracy could take decades. It will also take massive efforts on the parts of the ulema (the religious elite), political leaders, and others to work things through. The end result may be a synthesis that is very different from what democracy may look like in other countries. It may be very different from what the U.S. might think it wants to happen.

However, if the synthesis is allowed to occur naturally and appropriately then the results could be much better than the U.S. could have ever hoped for, even if the physical and political entity may seem foreign and strange to the American mind. The end objectives to political and economic developments should be peace, prosperity, freedom, and the betterment at many levels of one's people and of the world.

Short term policy objectives and myopic strategies should not get in the way of the melding of two world historical ideas and their implementations. In Islamic terms: democracy in an Islamic context can bring greater adel (justice) and mizan (balance or equilibrium) to a people in a Muslim country.

There will be the very complex issues of how to treat non-Muslims, religious freedom and the choice of family and other laws. In the past, the Islamic world has been able to overcome many of these obstacles. Maybe it is time, oddly and paradoxically enough, to return to some of the greater freedoms and understandings of the past that have been torn away from the people by the both the political and religious dictators, and by the closing of the door of ijtihad. Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived together in peace for very long periods in the past. Maybe it is time to implement changes that will allow such peaceful coexistence to flourish more propitiously in the future. Democratization is but one of the required changes, but a vital one.

The U.S., the European Union and others can help in the process of democratization, but ultimately it has to be up to the people of each of these countries to decide what their futures hold. The U.S. cannot and should not do this on its own. The negative views in the region of U.S. policies may cause the process to backfire if the U.S. tries to go it alone, or if he democratization process has a strong U.S. stamp on it. Democracy, like Islam, cannot and should not be forced on anyone. There is no compulsion in religion, according to the Koran, the word of God according to Muslims. There should also be no compulsion in the choices of one's leaders, or in the choices of processes that lead up to the choosing of leaders.

Democracy is a great system if it developed and applied properly, and if it is developed and applied within the cultural, religious, and ethical constraints of a society. This is especially so in Islamic societies. Islam is a great, profound and beautiful religion. Muslims deserve the freedom to be Muslims. Muslims deserve prosperity and peace. Appropriately formed democracies can help give them that.