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Global Movement of Moderates hold roundtable discussion on the moderate approach of democracy versus war.

KUALA LUMPUR: Democrat Islamists can be a solution to curb extremism worldwide as they provide a moderate approach in todays global world through the ballot box, said academicians and politicians.

International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) lecturer Dr Maszlee Malik said Democrat Islamists, made famous after the Arab Spring, allowed Muslims to control their fate through the ballot box rather than war or in the hands of leaders who were dictators, thus ending any grievances they might have had.

The idea of democrat Islamists has existed for a long time. Radical groups emerge because they found there was no hope for Muslims to enjoy justice, human rights and good governance, he said at a roundtable discussion on Democrat Islamists organised by the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) together with IIUMs Fiqh Department.

Chairman of London-based Al-Hiwar TV channel Dr Azzam Tamimi, said that the success of the Arab Spring was a promising event that allowed for democracy in the Middle East and at the same time made the militant group Al Qaeda into an irrelevant movement.

The success of the Arab Spring as we saw in Tunisia and Egypt was very promising, showing that this is the way forward. Some of the leaders of Al Qaeda were actually stressing fear that this model was succeeding, because it was proving them wrong, he said.

Dr Azzam also stressed that Democrat Islamists definition still varies, depending on how people come into contact with the ideology and that the struggle for Democrat Islamists in the Middle East was still an ongoing process.

The GMM on its website stated that Democrat Islamist is a special term which refers to the new actors who seek to apply the Islamic principles to public policy within a democratic framework, including those in Morocco and Tunisia.

Meanwhile, PAS Research Centre Executive Director Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad noted that although Westerners were a little cautious of the ideology, Democrat Islamists like that of PAS were successful and have managed to exist for 60 years in Malaysia.

But he noted that Democrat Islamists had problems of balancing between being democratic and upholding the true values of Islam in order to be relevant in a diverse country like Malaysia.

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GMM: Can democrat Islamists curb extremism?