Islamic republic
Encyclopedia
Islamic republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world
including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan
, Iran
, Afghanistan
, and Mauritania
. Pakistan
adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania
adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran
adopted it after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty
. Afghanistan
adopted it after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban. Despite the similar name the countries differ greatly in their governments and laws.
The term Islamic republic has come to mean several different things, some contradictory to others. To those Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East
and Africa
who advocate it, an Islamic Republic is a state
under a particular theocratic form of government
. They see it as a compromise between a purely Islamic Caliphate
, and secular nationalism
and republicanism
. In their conception of the Islam
ic republic
, the penal code of the state is required to be compatible with some laws of Sharia
, and the state may not be a monarchy
as many Middle Eastern states are presently.
In other cases, it is merely a symbol of cultural identity, as was the case when Pakistan adopted the title. In fact many argue that an Islamic Republic strikes a middle path between a completely secular and a theocratic (and/or Orthodox Islamic) system of government.
's Islamic republic is in contrast to the semi-secular state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where Islamic laws are technically considered to override laws of the state, though in reality their relative hierarchy is ambiguous.
The Islamic Republic of Iran came into existence following the Iranian Revolution
and a national referendum held on April 1, 1979.
and Kirghiz controlled Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan was declared in 1933 as an independent Islamic Republic, by Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki
and Muhammad Amin Bughra
. However, the Chinese muslim
36th Division (National Revolutionary Army)
defeated the Turkic muslim Uyghur and Kirghiz armies of the Turkish Islamic Republic, and destroyed the Republic during the Battle of Kashgar (1934)
, Battle of Yangi Hissar
and Battle of Yarkand
. The Chinese muslim Generals Ma Fuyuan and Ma Zhancang
declared the destruction of the rebel forces and the returning of the area to the control of the Republic of China
government, Chinese muslim forces then executed the Turkic muslim Emirs Abdullah Bughra
and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra
. The Chinese muslim General Ma Zhongying
then entered Idgah Mosque in Kashgar, and lectured the Turkic muslims on being loyal to the Chinese government.
was the first country to adopt the adjective "Islamic" to modify its republican status under its otherwise secular constitution. Despite this definition the country did not have a state religion until 1973, when a new constitution, more democratic and less secular, was adopted. Pakistan only uses the "Islamic" name on its passports and visas. Although Islamic Republic is specifically mentioned in the Constitution of 1973, all government documents are prepared under the name of the Government of Pakistan
. The Constitution of Pakistan
, part IX, article 227 says "All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah
, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions". After the Separation of East and West Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War
of 1971, Bangladesh
became the "People's Republic of Bangladesh."
or zakat
and provide welfare and pension to its citizens.
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, and Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
adopted it after the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
. Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
adopted it after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban. Despite the similar name the countries differ greatly in their governments and laws.
The term Islamic republic has come to mean several different things, some contradictory to others. To those Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
who advocate it, an Islamic Republic is a state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
under a particular theocratic form of government
Form of government
A form of government, or form of state governance, refers to the set of political institutions by which a government of a state is organized. Synonyms include "regime type" and "system of government".-Empirical and conceptual problems:...
. They see it as a compromise between a purely Islamic Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
, and secular nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
. In their conception of the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, the penal code of the state is required to be compatible with some laws of Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
, and the state may not be a monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
as many Middle Eastern states are presently.
In other cases, it is merely a symbol of cultural identity, as was the case when Pakistan adopted the title. In fact many argue that an Islamic Republic strikes a middle path between a completely secular and a theocratic (and/or Orthodox Islamic) system of government.
Iran
IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
's Islamic republic is in contrast to the semi-secular state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where Islamic laws are technically considered to override laws of the state, though in reality their relative hierarchy is ambiguous.
The Islamic Republic of Iran came into existence following the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
and a national referendum held on April 1, 1979.
China
The Turkic UyghurUyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
and Kirghiz controlled Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan was declared in 1933 as an independent Islamic Republic, by Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki
Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki
-Life:Sabit Damulla Abdulbaqi was born in 1883, in county of Atush in theKashgar vilayet, in Qeshqer -Life:Sabit (Sawut) Damulla Abdulbaqi was born in 1883, in county of Atush in theKashgar vilayet, in Qeshqer -Life:Sabit (Sawut) Damulla Abdulbaqi was born in 1883, in county of Atush in theKashgar...
and Muhammad Amin Bughra
Muhammad Amin Bughra
Muhammad Amin Bughra also Muḥammad Amīn Bughra , Муххамад Эмин Бугро, was a Turkic Muslim leader, who planned to set up an independent state, the First East Turkestan Republic....
. However, the Chinese muslim
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
36th Division (National Revolutionary Army)
36th Division (National Revolutionary Army)
The 36th Division was a cavalry division in the National Revolutionary Army. It was created in 1932 by the Kuomintang for General Ma Zhongying, who was also its first commander. It was made almost entirely out of Hui Muslim troops, all of its officers were Hui, with a few thousand Uighurs forced...
defeated the Turkic muslim Uyghur and Kirghiz armies of the Turkish Islamic Republic, and destroyed the Republic during the Battle of Kashgar (1934)
Battle of Kashgar (1934)
The Battle of Kashgar was a military confrontation that took place in 1934 during the Xinjiang Wars. Turkic Muslim Uighur and Kirghiz fighters under Emir Abdullah Bughra and the other Turkic separatists began four separate attacks over a six-day period on Hui and Han Chinese soldiers led by General...
, Battle of Yangi Hissar
Battle of Yangi Hissar
The Battle of Yangi Hissar was a military confrontation that took place in the Xinjiang Wars. In April 1934, Ma Zhancang led the 36th division to attack Uighur forces at Yangi Hissar, wiping out the entire Uighur force of 500, and killing the Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra.It was reported by Ahmad Kamal...
and Battle of Yarkand
Battle of Yarkand
The Battle of Yarkhand was a military confrontation that took place in April 1934. Ma Zhancang's Chinese Muslim army defeated the Uighur and Afghan volunteers sent by king Mohammed Zahir Shah, and exterminated them all. The emir Abdullah Bughra was killed and beheaded, his head put on display at...
. The Chinese muslim Generals Ma Fuyuan and Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang
Ma Zhancang was a Chinese muslim general of the 36th Division , who served under Generals Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan. At the Battle of Kashgar , he repulsed an attack of Uighurs led by the Syrian Arab Tawfiq Bay, wounding Tawfiq...
declared the destruction of the rebel forces and the returning of the area to the control of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
government, Chinese muslim forces then executed the Turkic muslim Emirs Abdullah Bughra
Abdullah Bughra
Abdullah Bughra , was a Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and older brother of Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar against the Chinese Muslimm 36th Division...
and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra
Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra
Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra , was an Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and Abdullah Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar against the Chinese Muslim 36th Division...
. The Chinese muslim General Ma Zhongying
Ma Zhongying
Ma Zhongying, also Ma Chung-ying was a Tungan Chinese Muslim warlord during the Warlord era of China. Ma Zhongying's birth name was Ma Buying . Zhongying was a warlord of Gansu province in China during the 1930s. He allied himself with the Kuomintang, which gave his soldiers an official...
then entered Idgah Mosque in Kashgar, and lectured the Turkic muslims on being loyal to the Chinese government.
Pakistan
PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
was the first country to adopt the adjective "Islamic" to modify its republican status under its otherwise secular constitution. Despite this definition the country did not have a state religion until 1973, when a new constitution, more democratic and less secular, was adopted. Pakistan only uses the "Islamic" name on its passports and visas. Although Islamic Republic is specifically mentioned in the Constitution of 1973, all government documents are prepared under the name of the Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
. The Constitution of Pakistan
Constitution of Pakistan
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is the supreme law of Pakistan. Known as the Constitution of 1973, it was drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and, following additions by the opposition parties, was approved by the legislative assembly on April 10, 1973...
, part IX, article 227 says "All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions". After the Separation of East and West Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
of 1971, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
became the "People's Republic of Bangladesh."
Islamic Republic in Theory
In theory, an Islamic republic would lean towards some socialistic Islamic principles such as the Islamic concepts of jizyaJizya
Under Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria...
or zakat
Zakat
Zakāt , one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth to charity, generally to the poor and needy.-History:Zakat, a practice initiated by Muhammed himself, has played an important role throughout Islamic history...
and provide welfare and pension to its citizens.
See also
- Islamic stateIslamic StateAn Islamic state is a type of government, in which the primary basis for government is Islamic religious law...
- IslamismIslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
- Religious police
- Political aspects of IslamPolitical aspects of IslamPolitical aspects of Islam are derived from the Qur'an, the Sunna , Muslim history, and elements of political movements outside Islam....