helzayat

I am having trouble understanding your apparent conviction that liberals are necessarily anti-Islamist. If you have a liberal understanding of Islam, can you not espouse your vision of a political system that is Islamist in the sense of adhering to Islamic principles AND liberal since in your interpretation there is no conflict between the two? I am a Muslim who was brought up to believe that Islam taught us how to live, not just how to worship. That includes relations with others, i.e. governance. I was also taught that freedom and equality of all human beings was an integral part of the teachings of Islam. I see nothing in my religion that would allow a ruler (or a government - democratic or otherwise) to discriminate against women, minorities or non-believers. Would not my politics be liberal Islamism? Or has the word been appropriated by those whose social conservatism they attribute to their (interpretation of) religion?

Believe it or not, not everyone who doesn’t wish to live in this illiberal society has the option to immigrate to the West that some have.

I mean acceptable in that it is something you think should not be objected to, "if that is what they want".

Do you think it acceptable that any human should claim to "have a way of accessing God's intent"? And tell other people what to do based on that? Even if enough people believe him that he is democratically elected to some position of power?

But if Islamist feel more than comfortable telling Muslims what is and isn't "true" Islam, shouldn't other, non-Islamist Muslims have the same right?