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338chapter six4. A political covenant (or a code of practice for political participation).This consists of a pledge to successfully implement democraticvalues and procedures in all spheres of political life, fromthe formation of political parties (so that they cover a wide spectrumof political opinions) to the practice of state censorship (sothat it does not stifle political opposition and dissent).It is a regrettable fact that most people in the Arab-Muslim worldhave still not learned that freedom of thought, freedom of speech,and freedom of religion can only be achieved if that society isorganised by a political system that wholeheartedly embraces democraticprinciples such as political pluralism, equality before the law,freedom of the press, the right to petition elected officials, civil liberties,judicial independence, separation of powers, and so on. We allhave to learn that without these democratic principles a society cannotpromote independent, critical thinking, and without intellectualautonomy and critical thinking a society will slide back into the darknessof either tyranny and despotism or complete anarchy. Our pleafor more democracy is a plea to prevent the current attitude amongArabs from becoming so entrenched in archaic notions of politicsthat we can no longer hope for any reform of the political regimescurrently in power.ApostasyThe notion that apostasy is forbidden and that apostates will bepunished by death has often been used by political authorities andthe religious establishment to suppress freedom of religion. For centuriesthe threat of the death penalty has been hanging over theheads of those who dare to question the fundamental doctrines ofIslamic scholarship or who want to explore religions other than theone he or she was born into. This section shows that the death penaltyis a fiction of Islamic fiqh concocted in order to discipline Muslim-Believers and to punish political dissent. Our aim is to reinvigoratea genuine social contract with its citizens, could give them real freedom in exchangefor their obedience to a self-imposed (i.e., self-legislated) law. It seems that Rousseau’sidea of a civil society that is united by a general will and that promotes thecommon interest of people while occasionally clashing with personal interest isshared by MS (see his thoughts on ‘freedom’ in this chapter).