Resurgence of Islam

I am writing to you regarding the Jan. 25 article (“With Islam Bottled Up, What’s Next for Algeria?”) and the subsequent articles that have to do with the situation in Algeria.

The political system in Islam is similar to democracy in the West with few exceptions. Mainly God cannot be outvoted or vetoed and that the constitution is not made by our forefathers but by the creator of our forefathers. Once Muslims establish themselves, the West would find out that the “monster” they were afraid of is nothing but the doctor who will end their sufferings and cure their social, economical, political, psychological, etc., problems. This is because Islam teaches “that we created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into tribes and nations so that you may know one another, not that you may despise one another.”

Instead of rejoicing at the massacre of democracy in Algeria, you should have condemned the State Department for expressing only “regrets” that Algeria suspended its transition to democracy.

We should accept the results of any honest free and fair election in which the democratic process is followed, whatever the results are.

It is time for the West to understand and evaluate Muslims in light of the basic teachings of Islam, which can be found in the Koran and the teachings of the prophet. One should not read any religion in what some of the followers of that religion do but in what the religion teaches the followers to practice.

AHMED EL-GABALAWY

Northridge