Until now, I have not encountered anyone who declares that “democracy is kufr” who even has the religious knowledge, let alone the political education, to qualify for participating in such a discussion. They have read a few pamphlets, listened to a few lectures, and they are very keen about Islamic government and disavowal of the West, and somehow rejecting their right to have a say in the decisions that will impact their daily lives makes them feel righteous. Again, I can relate to this, because I fell into this error myself for many years when I first converted.
In the US, teenagers look forward to their eighteenth birthday because they can qualify for a driving license, and they can go to discos once they turn 18. When I turned 18, I was excited about something else I would then be allowed to do: participate in the political process. On my eighteenth birthday, I registered to vote. I was politically active in the Democratic party even before this, organizing and supervising polling stations and mobilizing voters. I have been political all my life.
When I converted to Islam, I was in university, studying law and political science, and I had every intention of running for political office after working as a District Attorney. Once I came to Islam, I was informed that all of this was Haraam. Democracy is kufr. The law is not the Shari’ah and it is not allowed to pursue a career in this field. I abandoned these studies and gave up my political aspirations, without question or hesitation. I willingly turned off my brain because I thought I was being obedient, though I was actually just being stupid, listening to stupid people.
Most people who declare democracy to be kufr have no idea what democracy means; they have no idea how many forms and theories of democracy there are; so they have some excuse for their error. I didn’t know at that time how severely ignorant they were, so, even though I knew about democratic theory and their position seemed odd to me, I assumed they knew what they were talking about. Years later, I realized that they had no clue.
One major, if not the major factor that marked the end of the Khilafah ‘ala minhaj Nubuwwa was precisely when the ruling system lost its democratic character; when the people had no say in who their ruler would be.
No, when you are talking about matters that are not derived from revelation, there is no reason whatsoever why the population should be excluded from decision-making. That is utter nonsense. And you need to know, if you are loudly calling for the abstract idea of “Islamic government”, that most of this comes down to opinion. Only about 10% of the Qur’an contains explicit rulings, and most of these pertain to worship; not social, political, economic, or penal regulations; the rest is subject to interpretation and opinion.
So, you need to do your research before you make absolute pronouncements about democracy, about Islamic government, about Shari’ah; and if you are not prepared to do your research, you should not expect to be taken seriously; because you shouldn’t be.