The Ambiguity of the Term "Democratic"

Upon the people's victory over these obstacles, the differences surfaced themselves. Some of these might be instigated by some hands behind the scene. We have seen many such traces at the previous atrocities against us. they have attempted to take away from us two things, which have been the main factors for our victory: one is our unity; the other one is the people's demand for an Islamic republic. Our adversaries opposed the prefix" Islamic" at the start of the Islamic Republic. They preferred the term" democratic" in place of" Islamic." Some of the kind ones used the term" the democratic Islamic Republic." However, these terms did not appeal to our nation. They said they understood the term" Islamic"; they added they also comprehended the term" republics," but were not aware of the term" democratic." They said the latter term has continuously changed its content in the past. It had one sense in the east; quite another sense in the west. Plato used to define it in one way; Aristotle defined it in still another way. People said they could not vote in favor of something they could not understand. They said they had a full grasp of term" Islamic," however. They said they knew that Islam was a regime of justice. They said they realized the content of justice in Imam `Ali's government. People refused to use the ambiguous term" democratic" next to the term" Islamic." People contended that the use of the word" democratic" is an insult to" Islam" because the concept of justice is intrinsically incorporated in Islam. They said that by using" democratic" next to" Islamic," is like saying a just Islamic republic and this is tantamount to an effrontery to Islam because Islam is justice in itself.

Sahifeh, vol11, Page: 341 & 342

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