Civil society, democracy and the muslim world

Is Islam compatible with democracy? As authoritarian regimes have held on to power and political radicalism has proliferated in the Muslim world, the tendency has been to answer the question in the negative. A closer look at the inner dynamics in these societies reveals, however, that total pessimism about the future prospects of democracy in this part of the world is not altogether justified. The articles in this volume were presented at a conference in which the concept of civil society was discussed with special reference to recent developments in the Muslim world. The conference, held in Istanbul in October 1996, was initiated by the Goteborg University (Sweden) and the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and was inspired by the spirit of the Barcelona Conference of November 1995. In Barcelona, 11 Mediterranean countries joined the member states of the European Union in a declaration expressing the intention to work for economic and political liberalizing measures, with special reference to human rights issues. The Istanbul conference constituted a follow-up of the decisions taken in Barcelona.