Scholars urge rethinking of Islamic ideals

DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Islamic scholars called on Islamists in the Arab community to revise their positions on seeking to establish a religious state anywhere in the region.

"It is the insistence of Islamic movements to establish an Islamic state which triggered a horrendous clash with the Arab counties' regimes," said Radwan al-Sayed, a scholar on Islamic studies at Lebanon University.

A state government with its foundation in Islamic ideals would be incompatible with participatory governance, because Islamic law, Shariah, is a set of principles set to guide lifestyle decisions, not the conduct of the state, he said.

Sayed also took a position against Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah for using violence as a means to achieve their goals in the region, the Gulf Times noted.

"Islamic movements should denounce violence and ban it by all means, because when they exercise it, they do that in the name of God," he said.

He laid blame on the governments in the Arab world for weak leadership which creates a vacuum for militant ideology to fill.

For his part, Salah al-Din al-Jurashi, a Tunisian analyst, said it was time for Islamic movements to abandon the idea of imposing Shariah law in the Arab world.

"I hope that Islamists can give up the idea that application of the Shariah will solve all the problems of our societies and do some sort of calm revision of their approaches," he said.