SAIS Review of International Affairs

These are troubled times for the worldwide community of Muslims. Plagued by violence, poverty, and instability since their liberation from colonialism, Muslims have been unable to achieve the brotherhood in the faith that was urged by the Prophet Muhammad. In recent decades hundreds of thousands of Muslims have died violent deaths at the hands of other Muslims, as the peoples of Islam have struggled to establish the rules of their own governance. It may be that the faith itself, which encourages every believer to follow his own conscience in deciding how a community or nation should be governed, is incompatible with democratic stability. This is the malaise of Islam.