Many people can see that a 1400 year old religious law system cannot compete with modern secular law. Modern secular law is based on equal rights, justice, and human experience. But still the demand to remove secular law and bring Sharia is increasing.
This demand is not only from uneducated people. Surveys like Pew show significant support for Sharia as official law among educated populations in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Turkey, which was once the best example of Muslim secularism, has also moved away from strict secularism under Erdogan.
The same pattern is visible in parts of Muslim communities in Western secular countries, where in some segments integration with secular law has stalled and support for Islamist politics has grown.
The main question: Why is secularism losing there?
In my view, the simplest answer is not just the law itself, but what is behind it, i.e. the concept of an unquestionable God.
In traditional Islamic theology, Allah is presented as All Wise and All Knowledgeable, and His commands cannot be questioned. So even when a specific command looks unjust to human reason, for example different legal rules for Muslims and non Muslims, or harsh punishment for apostasy and blasphemy, it is still accepted as ultimately wise, because human mind is told it cannot understand divine wisdom.
Once a person accepts this idea as unquestionable, he can accept legal rules that go against secular principles of justice, equality and human rights, and he can reject secular law itself, even when secular law gives better results for society.
Education alone does not necessarily reduce religiosity if education itself teaches that divine revelation is the highest source of moral authority.
Why secularism alone cannot win in that environment?
Right now, there is almost no open and legally protected criticism of the concept of God itself in most Muslim majority countries. So the fight is not equal. Secularism alone has to compete against two things together, i.e., Islamic legal system + unquestionable concept of God.
That is why voices that demanded secularism for many decades in these countries could not get majority support.
In last two decades, a new factor has come because of internet and social media. Some non religious people and ex Muslims started criticizing the concept of God and classical Islamic law itself. It is still very new and still not well organized, but it exists.
When secularism + criticism of Islam come together, against the combination of concept of God + classical Islamic system, then the balance changes. That combined challenge is much more likely to succeed than secularism alone.
Look at the current situation in Europe. Europe is the center of secular law, but still some people convert to Islam there. Why does this happen?
The reason is, although Europe legally protects criticism of Islam in many countries, public criticism often reaches a much smaller audience than Islamic preaching and online dawah. Many culturally secular Europeans know little about Islamic theology or its critics.
The dawah of Islam far exceeds the criticism of Islam in Europe. So culturally secular Europeans do not have enough information about the criticism of Islam. Because of this lack of information, some of them convert.
On the other hand, for an informed secular European, the situation is completely different. For example, an atheist secular European who believes in modern science and evolution, or a European who already knows well about criticism of Islam, for them conversion to Islam is extremely rare. The rate is not zero, but it is very very low.
The opposite trend is much bigger and more visible. There are hundreds of thousands of people from Muslim background who are leaving Islam and becoming non religious. Many of them have to hide it because of blasphemy and apostasy laws, so we cannot measure the exact number, but the ex Muslim movement online is now global.
So the lesson is this that Political Islamism does not fear secularism alone, because secularism still leaves the theological foundation untouched. But it fears much more the combination of secularism and organized non religious critique.
Why non religious criticism is more effective than other religions?
In earlier centuries, Christianity, Hinduism and other religions also challenged Islam, but they failed to convince Muslims. One reason is they share the same structure. Belief in an all powerful God and their own divinely fixed moral codes, which have similar historical problems on issues like slavery or rights of women.
Modern non religious critique is different. It has Two Powerful Challenges to Religious Authority.
1. Modern Science
From evolution to cosmology, modern science directly challenges creation stories and other factual claims in religious texts. Thus, many people are today leaving religions due to modern science.
2. An Evolved Moral Standard Based on Human Experience
We have a sense of fairness that does not need scripture.
Modern secular morality did not appear overnight. It developed through centuries of philosophical debate, historical experience, constitutional law, and expanding recognition of equal rights.
Thus, through thousands of years of lived experience, secular societies developed a legal morality based on equal rights, freedom of conscience, and protection of minorities. This modern standard now challenges the old moral standards kept in classical religious law, for example on slavery, which classical Islamic Sharia allowed and regulated, or on equal testimony and inheritance for women.
Many people today do not replace one religion with another. Instead, they compare religious moral rules with modern principles such as freedom of conscience, equality before the law, equal citizenship regardless of religion, and equal rights for women. When they conclude that modern principles are morally preferable, they may lose confidence in the divine origin of classical religious law.
These two challenges have already transformed the religious landscape in many societies, and they continue to challenge traditional religious authority around the world.
Why Democracy Without Secularism is a Mistake?
Western societies pushed for elections and democracy in Islamic countries too. But it was a mistake, while they ignored the basic issues of removing blasphemy laws and providing of freedom of speech in the first place.
Therefore, Islamic Democracy without secularism and free speech becomes only "Dictatorship of Majority".
When majority can impose classical Sharia, which by definition does not give equal rights to non Muslims, it becomes a legal dictatorship over minorities.
Please don't keep on repeating this mistake, but put more emphasis upon Secular Values than only promoting democracy without secularism.
Freedom of speech is not merely a political right, but it is the condition that allows religious ideas to be examined like any other ideas.
As long as criticizing Islam carries legal punishment or the threat of violence, secularism competes with one hand tied behind its back. Where criticism becomes legally protected and physically safe, people can evaluate religious claims without fear.
The internet has opened that door for millions, but only partially. In many Muslim-majority societies, it remains a limited and risky window rather than a fully protected freedom.
Hassan Radwan