Islamophobic Democracy in Crisis – Yet Muslims Are Called to Save It with Their Votes

News:

In Denmark, as in several other Western countries, the public and political discourse is increasingly shaped by openly Islamophobic currents. Discussions of remigration – the deportation of non-Western residents – have moved from fringe movements to mainstream political debate. At the same time, the discourse on integration has hardened, with Muslims increasingly portrayed as a group that must either fully assimilate or leave.

Despite this hostile climate, Muslims are being urged – by politicians, civil society, and even certain Muslim figures – to “take responsibility” by participating in the democratic process, particularly in the upcoming local and national elections. This call comes even as the political environment becomes ever more repressive and explicitly anti-Islamic. In a deliberate act of ideological endorsement, Morten Messerschmidt – leader of the far-right Danish People’s Party and known for his virulent hateful rhetoric against Islam and Muslims – was recently knighted with the Order of the Dannebrog, a gesture seen by many as a state-sanctioned endorsement of racism and populism.

Meanwhile, the broader political landscape is marked by ideological decay. Traditional parties are losing public trust, and both the right and left are engaged in a race to the bottom, vying to appear the toughest on immigration and Islam. The coming parliamentary elections are expected to be even more toxic, with Islam and Muslims once again positioned as convenient scapegoats for a system in deep crisis.

Comment:

Western democracy is collapsing – politically, morally, and ideologically. The system that for decades paraded itself as a guardian of liberty and justice now reveals its true nature: a decaying ideological project that, in the absence of real solutions or vision, turns on minorities – especially Muslims – to maintain a façade of control and legitimacy.

We are witnessing the very symptoms that have historically preceded revolutions or major societal upheavals: deep mistrust of political institutions, loss of ideological coherence, and a political discourse that grows increasingly irrational and aggressive. When ideas die, identity politics arise. When ideology fails, nationalism and manufactured enemies take their place. And today, as in times past, that enemy is Islam.

It is precisely in this environment that Muslims are now being called upon to engage more than ever in the democratic system. But how can it be that, just as Islam and Muslims are being openly attacked and even discussed as candidates for deportation, Muslims are simultaneously being told to empower the very system that orchestrates this hostility?

This contradiction rests on a dangerous illusion: the idea that democracy is a neutral tool that Muslims can use for their benefit. In reality, democracy is not neutral – it is an ideological system founded on secularism, where sovereignty belongs to man, not Allah. Within such a system, Islam is not merely excluded from the public sphere – it is treated as a threat. Supporting this system politically is not only ineffective, it is a rejection of the very solution that Allah (swt) has prescribed for us.

[أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللّهِ حُكْمًا لِّقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ]

“Do they then seek the judgement of Jahiliyyah (ignorance)? And who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who have firm faith?” [Qur’an 5:50].

Instead of directing our energy, resources, and hopes into upholding a failing, hostile system, Muslims in the West must turn to the task that Allah (swt) has commanded: the re-establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophet (saw). This is not only a divine obligation – it is the only realistic and effective path to truly uplift Muslims worldwide and protect their dignity locally. A state that carries Islam as its ideology would immediately shift the global discourse, commanding respect through ideological strength, political will, and economic power.

It is not through the ballot box that Islam will rise, but through the revival of Islam as a comprehensive system for life, society, and state.

It is not through integrating into a dying order that Muslims will be protected, but through restoring the authority of Islam, so that it once again leads humanity with justice, truth, and light.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Ibrahim Atrach