Ayatollah Alamolhoda:

Western concept of democracy debatable

Rasa – "Whether the Western concept of democracy is truly democratic is debatable because the concept of democracy in the world today is distorted by the liberal concept of freedom," Ayatollah Alamolhoda stated that

News ID: 3986

Date: 24 February 2016 - 21:13

RNA – Speaking at an academic conference at Navvab Seminary in Mashhad, Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Alamolhoda spoke on “The Relationship of Wilayat al-Faqih al-Mutlaq (Absolute Guardianship of the Jurisprudent) to Democracy” and referred to the difference between the Western, Eastern and Islamic perspectives on the structure of society, adding that Islam has defined the structure of Islam in society through the eyes of Lady Fatimah al-Zahra.

The Friday prayer leader of Mashhad explained that from the perspective of Islam, society is a combination in which individuals are guided to human perfection but modernists believe that society is like a restaurant where anyone can take his own share from. “It is natural that the management of a society, which is like a ship, and the management of a restaurant is different,” he said.

The member of the Assembly of Experts said that whether the Western concept of democracy is truly democratic is debatable because the concept of democracy in the world today is distorted by the liberal concept of freedom.

“Western civil society has been established on the basis of this distortion and in the West, social movements make decisions instead of the people. For example, there are only two major parties in the United States political system,” he said.

Ayatollah Alamolhoda referred to Shi’a Muslims’ lack of access to the Infallible Imams during the occultation of Imam al-Mahdi and said adherence to him is their religious strategy for the continuation of the divine government. “The reality of democracy lies in the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent and the principle of Guardianship of the Jurisprudent the same as democracy,” he stressed.

He emphasized that after 250 years it has been proven that democracy the most oppressive system of government the world, saying: “This means that the original nature of liberalism has been destroyed and as a result, the system of guardianship is not only democracy itself, but rather, it is the implementation of the mechanism of democracy.”

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