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political islam 337and authority of political tyrants and despots. It created a lack ofcritical thinking because people thought that as long as they pray,fast, and go on pilgrimage, everything will be all right and Islam willprosper!The lack of critical awareness created a mind-set that easilyaccepted the #ulam§"s newly devised theologies of predestinationaccording to which God predetermines every single human act. Theconcept of free will and freedom of choice was entirely marginalised.In this way the formerly revolutionary (Islamic) concept of social,collective responsibility was replaced by a politic al-dynastical practiceby which one tyrant removes another tyrant, leading to an endlessseries of political assassinations and a political culture of force andviolence. Until today it has not been fully registered that al-jih§dal-qit§lÊ does not mean militant holy war but rather ‘legislation’ forthe purpose of establishing God’s word (kalimat All§h) as the highestideal. The most significant ‘word of God’ is freedom of choice forall people, regardless of whether they are assenters, heretics, believers,or unbelievers. Any other form of al-qit§l (in particular if it means‘killing’) does not qualify as a ‘fight in God’s way’, even if it isregarded as legal (e.g., the execution of prisoners in the USA).In order to change the current situation and mind-set of ArabMuslim-Believers we need to achieve a higher degree of acceptanceof democracy in the Arab-Muslim world. We believe that these followingfour things will achieve this:1. A spiritual covenant, consisting of worship of God by all peopleand based on freedom of choice between obedience and disobedience—aworship that will be assessed by Allah on the Dayof Judgement. The Book’s eschatological vision of God’s judgementacknowledges the existence of free will and the freedomof choice (between faith and heresy) because freedom is a ‘wordof God’ that is given primordially to humankind since God haseternally granted freedom to all of His creation.2. An ethical covenant (the covenant of al-isl§m) which includes allhumankind. The protection of Human Rights is a fundamentalpart of this ethical covenant.3. A civil covenant (in the sense of Rousseau’s Civil Contract), implyinga pledge of citizenship. 33Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), French philosopher and political theorist,argued in his Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique (1762) that a state, based on