DEMOCRATIC ISSUES AS THE BASIS OF MODERN-CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT IN ISLAM

: Democracy is an important part of political history in the world, successfully penetrating the political cultural base of each region from Europe, America, to Asia, in the history of its development democracy has touched many historical events that occurred in the scope of global politics and continues to provide and spread its wings of influence until now, which eventually gave birth to contemporary issues. The existence of democracy even touches Islam, Islamic political systems, Islamic countries, and all Islamic societies around the world. This of course invites a lot of attention from political observers, academics, activists, and religious leaders who study current issues and the influence of the democratic system. This paper will focus on the relationship between democracy as a political regime and Islam as well as its issues as the basis of contemporary Islamic thought with the research method of literature review and data analysis as well as a deeper examination of the references obtained


Introduction
In practice, democracy is understood as a system known as Power Of People, meaning that the power point of democracy is from the people for the people and by the people.The people are the ultimate power holders in a democratic society.During the initial introduction of the democratic system in the classical Greek era, many underestimated and classed this system, as a bad and wordy system, even the philosopher Aristotle said that the weakness of democracy with power fully in the hands of the people was a fatal mistake made by democracy.Because it will allow people who do not understand the political structure to take power.For one of these reasons, Aristotle created a 'counter' system which he named Aristocracy, in which political power was fully controlled by intellectual and competent individuals.
However, as time goes by.Democracy as a 'political product' has always evolved over time, giving birth to various forms and increasingly widespread practice in various countries.It is undeniable that today many developed countries have made democracy their political system.The more rapid the flow of political globalization, the faster democracy spreads its wings in the public sphere.Islam is no exception.Islam, which has been known for centuries to have the concept of Khilafah/Kingdom/Monarchy, meets with a concept that is completely opposite to what has been engraved in Islamic history.The result of the meeting of these two aspects, gave birth to issues from various perspectives in various circles, modern Muslim scholars in Indonesia in particular also pay more attention to this issue.In this context, Islamic political thought is in the middle of the crossroads of political ideology.

RESEARCH METHODS
The results of this discussion and discussion use the library research method by analyzing literature from experts and examining textual and contextual histories of books, journals, articles, accredited online media and several other references.This method also emphasizes that research on literature is the basis for the normative footing of academics in conducting scientific studies which is a hereditary tradition carried out by previous scholars.

Result and Discussion
Referring to the results of the research, this discussion will raise five main topics in discussing the issues of democracy as the basis of modern contemporary Islamic thought

Democracy at a Glance
Etymologically, democracy is taken from the Greek words demos which means people or population, and cratein or cratos which means power or sovereignty.So demoscratos means that the power of government is controlled by the sovereignty of the people, the supreme power is with the people, and decisions are made on the basis of people's votes, government from the people and interests for the people.1 The term democracy was first introduced by Herodotus, in Ancient Egypt around 3000 years ago.Later, it developed further into Ancient and Classical Greek thought and was practiced in the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC, the democratic system applied at that time was the direct democracy system or also known as direct democracy, which is a political decision carried out directly by the community with the majority opinion.Democracy is a response to the bad government system that was practiced in the cities of Athens (Greece). 2 Entering the modern era, ideas and notions of democracy began to develop in Europe in the 16th to 20th centuries.These ideas were a response to the absolute monarchy that ruled the world political system in medieval times.In the course of modern times, the significance of the development of democracy was seen after the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789).In the current century, the concept and idea of democracy has spread its wings and is almost accepted by all governments in the world with diverse concepts and practices.The leadership of authoritarian and tyrannical heads of state has resulted in a shift in the meaning of democracy itself and made it only a political symbol claim, hence the birth of various terms that describe such democracy, including liberal democracy, popular democracy, guided democracy and socialist democracy., di antaranya demokrasi liberal, demokrasi kerakyatan demokrasi terpimpin dan demokrasi sosialis.Examples of such leaders include Hitler (Germany), Lenin and Stalin (Russia), Mao Tse Dong (China) and Soeharto (Indonesia). 3

Islam and Democracy
The relationship between Islam and democracy is a contemporary discussion today, between the reality of both there is a proportion that causes overlapping understanding of experts, resulting in many differences of opinion among scholars and observers.Through the normativity approach, Islam is a divine teaching that is divine and comes from His words and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, while from a historical perspective, Islam is a civilization phenomenon.Islam does not only talk about divinity, prophethood, metaphysics and others, in reality, Islam also internalizes its teachings in social space, creating peace and morality that is universal.With such integration, Islam historically does not recognize the term democracy.However, this does not mean that Islam does not recognize its practice, in Islam political life is termed deliberation / shura in which it is directly in contact with politics and is related to democratic practices in general. 4e similarities between the Shura theory in Islam and democracy in general can be seen from the principles that have been explained in the Qur'anic verses, such as freedom of opinion, equality, participation, mutual cooperation, and tolerance of differences in decision making, not only in the state government system, but also starting from the smallest social space, namely the family5 .However, in fact, the meeting between Islam and democracy does not only produce similarities, but also differences in views between Muslim scholars, and finally this theme is always discussed in an actual and contemporary manner. 6story has recorded the relationship between Islam and the democratic system since the time of the Prophet Muhammad.Although the term democracy was not yet born at that time, the application carried out by the prophet Muhammad SAW gave birth to the values that are now contained in the concept of democracy.One of the evidences of democracy applied by the prophet Muhammad SAW was when he migrated from the city of Makah to Medina, changed the order of the city of Medina, lived as neighbors with three large Jewish tribes, and even applied the executive, legislative and judicial systems indirectly. 7Written evidence of the establishment of democracy is the existence of the Medina charter which was then held as a written agreement to realize peace between Muslims and Jews in Medina.Furthermore, in the caliphate era, the appointment of Sayyidina Abu Bakar Ash-Shiddiq RA was also on the basis of deliberation which became the foundation of democratic politics, the next change of caliph, Sayyidina Umar bin Khattab RA, made laws for the common good by upholding the principle of deliberation, the principle of justice, the principle of principle responsibility, the principle of equality, the principle of trust and obedience in government regulations at that time as well 8 even Sayiidina Umar bin Khattab RA rejected the monarchical system by appointing his son, Abdullah bin Umar as the next caliph, the tradition of appointing leaders on the basis of deliberation of the Muslim people continued until the caliphate of Sayyidini Ali bin Abi Talib ended, then Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan took over the seat of the caliphate and implemented a monarchical system in the Islamic political system. 9

Principles of Democracy in Islam
The verses of the Qur'an have a lot to do with the theory of democracy, although the term has never been heard before in Islam itself, but through the Qur'an, Islam also has the same line of discussion in democracy, in describing this there are at least four verses in the Qur'an, namely.

Democratic Issues in Islam
Islamic political thought in the modern-contemporary era that developed in the 20th century has always caused heated discussions among political experts, observers and Muslim scholars, due to the many conflicts from the clash of these two entities10 Orientalists in the West even give their opinions, such as the Western scientist Samuel P. Huntington who said that when Muslims are introduced to the democratic system, they will tend to reject it, because they feel that the influence of democracy cannot dominate the influence of Islam on them.He added that in some Muslim countries, democracy is rejected outright because it comes from Western liberalism11 .So this time three issues will be raised in academic discussions.

Religion Versus Democracy
In this case, religion and democracy cannot be brought together.The meeting of the two actually causes conflict between the two camps, so they must be separated and not interfere with each other.Among the reasons for this is that people always associate the laws that apply in democracies with the power of God, which in this case means religion.Many Muslims still think that democracy can destroy from within what Islam has brought.Theologically, this assumes that Islam shackles human reasoning and freedom, while democracy has a system of freedom.So if this happens, we will see the phenomenon of a democratic society on the one hand and a society with religious authority on the other.

Secularization of Politics
In this case what is meant is neutralization.That religious affairs and political affairs run separately according to their respective concepts.This secularization occurs at various levels, whether in small communities to state institutions.In general, democratic entities will tend to be more visible in social reality than religion, which is considered as the privacy and personal beliefs of each individual.

Theo-Democracy
This third view is the view when looking at theological and sociological perspectives, theo-democracy fully supports the process of political democracy.Historically, all Abrahamic religions fully support and uphold human dignity and status by improving morality.So that politics built with democracy looks moral and ethical when practiced in the social space.Although religion comes from God with a vertical line of descent, the teachings that come down also discuss horizontal issues, such as economics, politics, social, culture, state, etc.The role of contemporary mufassirs in interpreting religious texts is very important to continue this kind of understanding from time to time.12

Contsemporary Muslim Scholars' Thoughts on Democracy
The modern-contemporary era should be led by those who are competent and experts in their fields.Here two Muslim scholars of the 20th century whose thoughts on Islam and Democracy are still relevant today will be highlighted.

Nur Cholis Madjid's Thougts on Democracy
According to Nur Cholis Madjid, democracy must have two main components.The first is the civic, political and social component, which includes life, liberty and property.The second is the political component as a citizen who focuses on the democratic system.Democracy, which was born in the West and has developed to this day, has different concepts.In fact, Nur Cholis Madjid considers it difficult to define the concept of democracy itself in general.Because various countries have blended their governments with the concept of democracy, it requires changing some aspects to adjust to the country's structure.In general terms and concepts, democracy is a system where people make decisions based on majority rule, but majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of human rights protection, including the protection of minority rights.Nur Cholis Madjid added that democracy is not a political system with a single concept, but all nations and countries have their own understanding and concept in practice, differences in educational and social economic progress, cultural demands and traditions also affect the prevailing concept of democracy13 .

Muhammad Quraish Shihab's Thoughts on Democracy
As an exegete in the contemporary era, a professor in the field of tafsir often uses Qur'anic verses as a paradigm lens to understand democracy.In thousands of verses, Quraish Shihab associates the term democracy with the word Shura in the Qur'an.While the sunnah perspective, Quraish Shihab took a lot of history of democratic practices in the era of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, until the Khalifaturrasyidin era.Quraish Shihab said that Islamic teachings have a universal concept, so that arguments about democracy can be found in the Al-Quran and Sunnah.
In his tafsir Al-Misbah, he elaborates on the meaning of the word shura, which he considers to be the definition of democracy in Islam.Shura is taken from the Arabic word Sya-Wa-Ra which means to squeeze honey from a beehive.There is an analogy or qiyas here, that the honey in question is an opinion that is full of benefits, and deliberation is an effort to achieve this honey.
In other words, taking an opinion should look at the substance of the opinion regardless of who said it.
According to Quraish Shihab, there are three main views that are elements of Islamic democracy.First, equality.Second, the burden of responsibility on all individuals in upholding the laws of justice based on the practice of deliberation/shura.Third, clear and indiscriminate legislation.
Basically, Quraish Shihab identifies democracy with shura.Although on the other hand, he also recognizes the differences between democracy and shura.However, these differences are not so big and influential, he still emphasizes that it is Islam that forms the idea of democracy which contains the principles of equality, shura, and responsibility14 .

Conclusion
The issues of democracy continue to develop until today, but Muslim scholars are still trying to make what has been taught by Islam can be relevant to globalization in the contemporary era, even expected to be able to be a problem solving for a conflict.Democracy as a political system that can apply at various levels of society, has experienced many significant changes that depend on the situation and conditions of social society, including Indonesia, which is currently believed to have the largest Muslim population in the world, on the other hand, the Indonesian state adheres to a democratic system of government which ultimately must also require Muslim scholars and the younger generation to always guard and maintain the teachings of Islam, and democracy in the country.
From the beginning, the arrival of Islam as a religion of rahmatan lil 'alamin has democratic values that can finally be dialogued with normative global political currents.Basically, the practice of a state system is not only guided by normative rules, but also looks at its interests and benefits.Democracy gave birth to many issues in its development in the Islamic world, and Islam managed to respond to it all through verses of the Quran even before the issue surfaced.