But not everyone in the West, and specially the U.S., is happy even with this moderate form. There are many who feel that secularism, instead of being a state of neutrality among religions, is itself increasingly becoming a religion in its own right, and an intolerant one at that. They attribute many of the signs of moral decline to this dwindling role of religion. The equation of the secular with the Western, is also unfair because there is much in the West that is far more important, and of universal value than secularism. Now we come to the question of democracy.
Western states are no doubt democratic.
This depends on what one takes to be the most important characteristics of a democratic state. If by democracy is meant rule of law, human rights, choice of rulers, then these are inseparably part of the religion of Islam. No ideology, secular or religious, lays greater emphasis on the importance of the principle of the rule of law than Islam. That is nearer to piety. The same applies to human rights, the rights of life, of ownership, of expression, of movement, etc., within the Islamic Law.