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Comment by __derek__ | Hacker News Reader

> Please point me to a democratic, secular islamic nation. Just one?

Indonesia and Malaysia, for two.

Indonesia is not an Islamic nation even though a majority of its population is Islamic and there is some influence of Islam in their politics.

Malaysia is, as you stated, an Islamic nation. It is not secular, however, as they consider Islam to be their official religion.

How is Indonesia not an Islamic nation when now several of its provinces are legally ruled by shariah law interpreted by mullahs, not by representatives or leaders elected by the people, and when the government makes federal (parliamentary?) laws enforcing various muslim beliefs and laws?

Aceh is a weird exception in Indonesia. They were only intregrated into Dutch Indonesia in early 20th century and always had a tenuous relationship with the various Malay states and a very strong political and cultural connection with Turkiye (being a vassal of the Ottoman Empire at various times in it's history).

Also, the parts of Indonesia I've been to (mostly Java) feels much less "Islamic" on the ground than Malaysia. Yes I see hijabs fairly often, but to me at least, Islamic motifs seemed much more prominent in Malaysia and even Singapore than Java.

Indonesia is not an Islamic state, but it is an Islamic nation. These are different. Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, making the state secular despite the official religion.

FWIW, the structure of your reply implies that "secular islamic nation" is a contradiction in terms. Maybe that was intentional, but if so it works better as a reply to GP.

By this logic such a nation does not exist, as you can’t be both Islamic and secular at the same time. You can say the same about Turkey as Indonesia, it’s a secular nation even though the majority of its population is Muslim. I think the OP comment meant to ask about a secular democracy in a country where most people are Muslim. And in that case Turkey could be an example, even though Erdogan is fairly dictator-ish, we’ll see how their elections go this year

> you can’t be both Islamic and secular at the same time

Yes. There is a difference between an Islamic nation and a nation of Muslims.

Currently, there is not, as all nations of muslims are ruled by a-secular, illiberal dictators.

> all nations of muslims are ruled by a-secular, illiberal dictators

This describes none of the Arab monarchies. Neither does it describe Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan. (Indonesia and Malaysia are political science’s Rorschach tests.)

Secular dictatorships in the Muslim world are the exception, unless we’re using highly unorthodox definitions of secularity or dictatorship. (Secular government in Muslim-majority countries is common; most are not dictatorships [1].)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_secularism

It should go without saying that you cannot have religion be part of a secular democracy.

Turkiye has not been a secular nation for a very long time. Go read hurriyetdailynews.com, a moderately pro-government site. Currently the government is trying to make it illegal to be gay by attaching it to a bill that supposedly protects the rights of turbanli (covered women). The full text of the bill practically Turkiye into every other shariah nation.

Also read up on "Imam hatips", which are failed religious school the government forces us to pay for. Nobody wants to go to them, because the educational quality is garbage, so they actually started forcing students to go to them.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's democracy could have been the most inspiring democracy the world has known, but the democracy itself died within 10 years of him. I think we're on our 6th constitution since then.

During the 2 year "state of emergency" after the coup, he rewrote the entire constitution.

Currently there are over 250 politicians in prison from the HDP (Kurdish party), and EVERY major name in the CHP is being prosecuted, or has been convicted of "insulting the cumhuriyet" in the past 3 months.. This is the most democratic nation in the ummah. :(

“Show me a theocracy that’s not theocratic! Checkmate!!!”

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