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Islam and democracy

There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship of Islam and democracy among Islamic political theorists, the general Muslim public, and Western authors.

Many Muslim scholars have argued that traditional Islamic notions such as shura (consultation), maslaha (public interest), and ʿadl (justice) justify representative government institutions which are similar to Western democracy, but reflect Islamic rather than Western liberal values. Still others have advanced liberal democratic models of Islamic politics based on pluralism and freedom of thought. Some Muslim thinkers have advocated secularist views of Islam.

A number of different attitudes regarding democracy are also represented among the general Muslim public, with polls indicating that majorities in the Muslim world desire a political model where democratic institutions and values can coexist with the values and principles of Islam, seeing no contradiction between the two.

Quran
Muslim democrats, including Ahmad Moussalli (professor of political science at the American University of Beirut), argue that concepts in the Quran point towards some form of democracy, or at least away from despotism. These concepts include shura (consultation), ijma (consensus), al-hurriyya (freedom), al-huqquq al-shar'iyya (legitimate rights). For example, shura (Al Imran – Quran 3:159, Ash-Shura – Quran 42:38) may include electing leaders to represent and govern on the community's behalf. Government by the people is not therefore necessarily incompatible with the rule of Islam, whilst it has also been argued that rule by a religious authority is not the same as rule by a representative of God. This viewpoint, however, is disputed by more traditional Muslims. Moussalli argues that despotic Islamic governments have abused the Quranic concepts for their own ends: "For instance, shura, a doctrine that demands the participation of society in running the affairs of its government, became in reality a doctrine that was manipulated by political and religious elites to secure their economic, social and political interests at the expense of other segments of society," (In Progressive Muslims 2003).

Sunni Islam
Deliberations of the Caliphates, most notably the Rashidun Caliphate, were not democratic in the modern sense rather, decision-making power lay with a council of notable and trusted companions of Muhammad and representatives of different tribes (most of them selected or elected within their tribes).

In the early Islamic Caliphate, the head of state, the Caliph, had a position based on the notion of a successor to Muhammad's political authority, who, according to Sunnis, was ideally elected by the people or their representatives, as was the case for the election of Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Al Khattab, Uthman, and Ali as Caliph. After the Rashidun Caliphs, later Caliphates during the Islamic Golden Age had a much lesser degree of collective participation, but since "no one was superior to anyone else except on the basis of piety and virtue" in Islam, and following the example of Muhammad, later Islamic rulers often held public consultations with the people in their affairs.

The legislative power of the Caliph (or later, the Sultan) was always restricted by the scholarly class, the ulama, a group regarded as the guardians of Islamic law. Since the law came from the legal scholars, this prevented the Caliph from dictating legal results. Sharia rulings were established as authoritative based on the ijma (consensus) of legal scholars, who theoretically acted as representatives of the Ummah (Muslim community). After law colleges (madrasas) became widespread beginning with the 11th and 12th century CE, a student often had to obtain an ijaza-t al-tadris wa-l-ifta ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in order to issue legal rulings. In many ways, classical Islamic law functioned like a constitutional law.

Bangladeshi Islamic scholar Khandaker Abdullah Jahangir said in a scholarly interview about Islam and democracy that, "Sovereignty means ownership. This is simple that sovereign means owner. For example, I am the owner of this land which is true. I can erect building here, I can demolish it, I can make partition, and I can sell it. I have this ownership. Again, this land belongs to Allah. This is also true. And the fact is, according to Islam, with this land I can do many things, but I cannot make a brothel here. People's ownership is limited; Allah's ownership is the supreme over all other sovereigns. My ownership is worldly, and if I put it over Allah's ownership, I will be offender to Allah. In the same vein, people are the owner of the country, it is a simple word. Those who say it is anti-Islamic to say people are sovereign and they are the source of all powers, I do not agree with them. Here by power, it does not mean power regarding storm-rain, or disease, it means the power of ministers, prime minister and above all state power. This power actually belongs to people. In Islam, power will be attained by the consent of the people. If in a society the chiefs of tribes consent and the mass people agree to it, it is ok, this is democracy. People's participation and share is mandatory in Islam which is democracy. Therefore, people are the owner of the state, and people are the source of power is not contradictory to Islam. However, if anyone thinks this ownership means that anyone can do anything; can make a haram (prohibited) a halal (legitimate), and a halal a haram, then obviously it is anti-Islamic."

Salafi view
Salafism as an ideology and movement has close ties to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy from its beginning in the 18th century has partnered with Wahhabism as military tool and ideological support to their monarchical rule. The ruling monarchy uses their scholars (termed salafis, wahhabis, and Najdis) to defend their authoritarian rule and subjugate the masses. Because the Saudi monarchs perceive democracy and the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to their rule, they have occasionally used extremist Salafi scholars (e.g. madkhalis) to oppose democracy at home and in other Arab states, and claim that democracy is haram and even shirk. For example, after the election of Mohamed Morsi, the Saudi authorities used their Salafi proxies in Egypt to counter the Muslim brotherhood, proclaim that democracy is shirk, and promoted terrorist attacks in the Sinai against the Egyptian military. The violence and destabilization caused by radical Salafi jihadist groups in the Sinai led to the ousting of Morsi and overthrow of democracy in Egypt. Thus, there are different opinions among Salafi scholars regarding democracy depending on the political climate in Saudi Arabia and freedom of expression. Over the decades, different Salafi groups around the world have changed and evolved, from initial quietism to fully embracing political engagement to promote their ideology.

Some Salafi scholars opine that democracy is haram and shirk in Islam and allege that it overrules the Shari'a (e.g. by potentially permitting alcohol and riba if the people vote for it), but they legitimize the opportunity to use democracy to come to power and to vote to establish Islamic rule and encourage voting to choose the better between evils, among these scholars are Shaykh Abd al-Aziz bin Baz, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Uthaymeen, Abdullah al-Ghudayyan, Abdullah Quyud, Abdur Razzaq Afifi, Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia: Grand Mufti Shaykh Abdul Aziz Ash-Shaikh, Shaykh Abdul Muhsin Al-Abbad, Shaykh Wasiullah Abbas and Saudi Arabia's most senior fatwa panel of scholars, "Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta", all echoed similar calls to encourage Muslims to vote.

Khandaker Abdullah Jahangir in his book ("Hadiser Namey Jaliyati") (Forgery in the Name of Hadith) says about the interpretation of Hadith of democratic Islamist parties about Islamic politics, "A variation of lying in the name of hadith is to add or omit something from the translation without doing a literal translation or making the interpretation of what [Muhammad] said a part of the hadith. Almost all of us in our society are involved in this crime. For self-purification, Pir-Muridi, Dawat-Tabligh, politics, etc., we provide evidence from Quran and Hadith to people of every group and opinion. Providing such evidence is a very natural act and demand of faith. But usually we run this explanation in the name of [Muhammad]. For example, [Muhammad] governed the state, but did not do 'party politics' in the traditional sense, i.e. did not do anything like change of power through voting. Currently many scholars are doing democratic 'politics'. It is accepted as a new method of enjoining justice, forbidding injustice or Iqamat Deen.  But if we say that, 'Rasulullah (ﷺ) did politics', then the listener or reader will understand the conventional meaning of 'politics', i.e. the seizure of power through voting. And he did not do this politics. As a result, lies will be told in his name. That is why we should tell separately what he did and said and what we are interpreting"

Conclusively, Salafi opinions on democracy can be categorized in the following ways, depending on the scholar and the context:
 * 1) That democracy is haram and perhaps even shirk if it is used to overrule fundamental tenants of the Shari'a, like making forbidden things permissible (i.e. making the haram legal), or if it is a threat to the rule of the Saudi monarchy.
 * 2) That participating in democracy outside of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world (e.g. in the West and India) is good (with a variety of opinions on the details) if the participant is voting for the lesser of two evils or for an Islam-promoting candidate.

Shia Islam
According to the Shia understanding, Muhammad named as his successor (as leader, with Muhammad being the final prophet), his son-in-law, and cousin Ali. Therefore, the first three of the four elected "Rightly Guided" Caliphs recognized by Sunnis (Ali being the fourth), are considered usurpers, notwithstanding their having been "elected" through some sort of conciliar deliberation (which the Shia do not accept as a representative of the Muslim society of that time). The largest Shia grouping—the Twelvers branch—recognizes a series of Twelve Imams, the last of which (Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Hidden Imam) is still alive and the Shia are waiting for his "reappearance".

Al-Farabi
The early Islamic philosopher, Al-Farabi (c. 872–950), in one of his most notable works Al-Madina al-Fadila, theorized an ideal Islamic state which he compared to Plato's The Republic. Al-Farabi departed from the Platonic view in that he regarded the ideal state to be ruled by the prophet, instead of the philosopher king envisaged by Plato. Al-Farabi argued that the ideal state was the city-state of Medina when it was governed by Muhammad, as its head of state, as he was in direct communion with God whose law was revealed to him. In the absence of the prophet, Al-Farabi considered democracy as the closest to the ideal state, regarding the republican order of the Rashidun Caliphate as an example within early Muslim history. However, he also maintained that it was from democracy that imperfect states emerged, noting how the republican order of the early Islamic Caliphate of the Rashidun caliphs was later replaced by a form of government resembling a monarchy under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.

Varieties of modern Islamic theories
Muslih and Browers identify three major perspectives on democracy among prominent Muslims thinkers who have sought to develop modern, distinctly Islamic theories of socio-political organization conforming to Islamic values and law:
 * The rejectionist Islamic view, elaborated by Sayyid Qutb and Abul A'la Maududi, condemns imitation of foreign ideas, drawing a distinction between Western democracy and the Islamic doctrine of shura (consultation between ruler and ruled). This perspective, which stresses comprehensive implementation of sharia, was widespread in the 1970s and 1980s among various movements seeking to establish an Islamic state, but its popularity has diminished in recent years.
 * The moderate Islamic view stresses the concepts of maslaha (public interest), ʿadl (justice), and shura (consultation). Islamic leaders are considered to uphold justice if they promote public interest, as defined through shura. In this view, shura provides the basis for representative government institutions that are similar to Western democracy, but reflect Islamic rather than Western liberal values. Hasan al-Turabi, Rashid al-Ghannushi, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi have advocated different forms of this view.
 * The liberal Islamic view is influenced by Muhammad Abduh's emphasis on the role of reason in understanding religion. It stresses democratic principles based on pluralism and freedom of thought. Authors like Fahmi Huwaidi and Tariq al-Bishri have constructed Islamic justifications for full citizenship of non-Muslims in an Islamic state by drawing on early Islamic texts. Others, like Mohammed Arkoun and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, have justified pluralism and freedom through non-literalist approaches to textual interpretation. Abdolkarim Soroush has argued for a "religious democracy" based on religious thought that is democratic, tolerant, and just. Islamic liberals argue for the necessity of constant reexamination of religious understanding, which can only be done in a democratic context.

Secularist views
In the modern history of the Muslim world, the notion of secularism has acquired strong negative connotations due to its association with foreign colonial domination and the removal of religious values from the public sphere. Traditional Islamic theory distinguishes between matters of religion (din) and state (dawla), but insists that political authority and public life must be guided by religious values. Some Islamic reformists like Ali Abdel Raziq and Mahmoud Mohammed Taha have advocated a secular state in the sense of political order that does not impose any single interpretation of sharia on the nation, though they did not advocate secularism in the sense of a morally neutral exercise of state power. The Islamic scholar Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im has argued for a secular state built on constitutionalism, human rights and full citizenship, seeking to demonstrate that his vision is more consistent with Islamic history than visions of an Islamic state. Proponents of Islamism (political Islam) reject secularist views that would limit Islam to a matter of personal belief and insist on implementation of Islamic principles in the legal and political spheres. Moreover, the concept of 'Separation of Powers' was propounded by Ruhollah Khomeini.

Muhammad Iqbal
The modern Islamic philosopher, Muhammad Iqbal, viewed the early Islamic Caliphate as being compatible with democracy. He "welcomed the formation of popularly elected legislative assemblies" in the Muslim world as a "return to the original purity of Islam." He argued that Islam had the "gems of an economic and democratic organization of society", but that this growth was stunted by the monarchist rule of Umayyad Caliphate, which established the Caliphate as a great Islamic empire but led to political Islamic ideals being "repaganized" and the early Muslims losing sight of the "most important potentialities of their faith."

Muhammad Asad
Another Muslim scholar and thinker, Muhammad Asad, viewed democracy as perfectly compatible with Islam. In his book The Principles of State and Government in Islam, he notes: "Viewed from this historical perspective, 'democracy' as conceived in the modern West is infinitely nearer to the Islamic than to the ancient Greek concept of liberty; for Islam maintains that all human beings are socially equal and must, therefore, be given the same opportunities for development and self-expression. On the other hand, Islam makes it incumbent upon Muslims to subordinate their decisions to the guidance of the Divine Law revealed in the Qur'ãn and exemplified by the Prophet: an obligation which imposes definite limits on the community's right to legislate and denies to the 'will of the people' that attribute of sovereignty which forms so integral a part of the Western concept of democracy."

Abul A'la Maududi
Islamist writer and politician Abul A'la Maududi, conceived of an "Islamic state" that would eventually "rule the earth". The antithesis of secular Western democracy, it would follow an all-embracing Sharia law. Maududi called the system he outlined a "theo-democracy", which he argued would be different from a theocracy as the term is understood in the Christian West, because it would be run by the entire Muslim community (pious Muslims who followed sharia), rather than ruled by a clerical class in the name of God.

Maududi's vision has been criticized (by Youssef M. Choueiri) as an "ideological state in which legislators do not legislate, citizens only vote to reaffirm the permanent applicability of God's laws, women rarely venture outside their homes lest social discipline be disrupted, and non-Muslims are tolerated as foreign elements required to express their loyalty by means of paying a financial levy."

L. Ali Khan
Legal scholar L. Ali Khan argues that Islam is fully compatible with democracy. In his book, A Theory of Universal Democracy, Khan provides a critique of liberal democracy and secularism. He presents the concept of "fusion state" in which religion and state are fused. There are no contradictions in God's universe, says Khan. Contradictions represent the limited knowledge that human beings have. According to the Quran and the Sunnah, Muslims are fully capable of preserving spirituality and self-rule.

Javed Ahmed Ghamdi
Religious scholar, Javed Ahmed Ghamdi interprets the Quranic verses as  The collective affairs of Muslims are run on the basis of mutual consultations  (42:37). He is of the view that all the matters of a Muslim state must be sought out through consultations.The parliamentary bodies would provide that platform to practice and implement those consultations.

Views of the general Muslim public
Esposito and DeLong-Bas distinguish four attitudes toward Islam and democracy prominent among Muslims today:
 * Advocacy of democratic ideas, often accompanied by a belief that they are compatible with Islam, which can play a public role within a democratic system, as exemplified by many protestors who took part in the Arab Spring uprisings;
 * Support for democratic procedures such as elections, combined with religious or moral objections toward some aspects of Western democracy seen as incompatible with sharia, as exemplified by Islamic scholars like Yusuf al-Qaradawi;
 * Rejection of democracy as a Western import and advocacy of traditional Islamic institutions, such as shura (consultation) and ijma (consensus), as exemplified by supporters of absolute monarchy and radical Islamist movements;
 * Belief that democracy requires restricting religion to private life, held by a minority in the Muslim world.

Polls conducted by Gallup and PEW in Muslim-majority countries indicate that most Muslims see no contradiction between democratic values and religious principles, desiring neither a theocracy, nor a secular democracy, but rather a political model where democratic institutions and values can coexist with the values and principles of Islam.

Obstacles
There are several ideas on the relationship between Islam in the Middle East and democracy. Waltz writes that transformations to democracy seemed on the whole to pass by the Islamic Middle East at a time when such transformations were a central theme in other parts of the world, although she does note that, of late, the increasing number of elections being held in the region indicates some form of adoption of democratic traditions.

Following the Arab Spring, professor Olivier Roy of the European University Institute in an article in Foreign Policy has described political Islam as "increasingly interdependent" with democracy, such that "neither can now survive without the other".

Orientalist scholars offer another viewpoint on the relationship between Islam and democratisation in the Middle East. They argue that the compatibility is simply not there between secular democracy and Arab-Islamic culture in the Middle East which has a strong history of undemocratic beliefs and authoritarian power structures. Kedourie, a well known Orientalist scholar, said for example: "to hold simultaneously ideas which are not easily reconcilable argues, then, a deep confusion in the Arab public mind, at least about the meaning of democracy. The confusion is, however, understandable since the idea of democracy is quite alien to the mind-set of Islam." A view similar to this that understands Islam and democracy to be incompatible because of seemingly irreconcilable differences between Sharia and democratic ideals is also held by some Islamists.

However, within Islam there are ideas held by some that believe Islam and democracy in some form are indeed compatible due to the existence of the concept of shura (meaning consultation) in the Quran. Views such as this have been expressed by various thinkers and political activists in the Middle East. They continue to be the subject of controversy, e.g. at the second Dubai Debates, which debated the question "Can Arab and Islamic values be reconciled with democracy?"

Brian Whitaker's 'four major obstacles'
Writing on The Guardian website, Brian Whitaker, the paper's Middle East editor, argued that there were four major obstacles to democracy in the region: 'the imperial legacy', 'oil wealth', 'the Arab–Israeli conflict' and militant" Islam'.

The imperial legacy includes the borders of the modern states themselves and the existence of significant minorities within the states. Acknowledgment of these differences is frequently suppressed usually in the cause of "national unity" and sometimes to obscure the fact that minority elite is controlling the country. Brian Whitaker argues that this leads to the formation of political parties on ethnic, religious or regional divisions, rather than over policy differences. Voting therefore becomes an assertion of one's identity rather than a real choice.

The problem with oil and the wealth it generates is that the states' rulers have the wealth to remain in power, as they can pay off or repress most potential opponents. Brian Whitaker argues that as there is no need for taxation there is less pressure for representation. Furthermore, Western governments require a stable source of oil and are therefore more prone to maintain the status quo, rather than push for reforms which may lead to periods of instability. This can be linked into political economy explanations for the occurrence of authoritarian regimes and lack of democracy in the Middle East, particularly the prevalence of rentier states in the Middle East. A consequence of the lack of taxation that Whitaker talks of in such rentier economies is an inactive civil society. As civil society is seen to be an integral part of democracy it raises doubts over the feasibility of democracy developing in the Middle East in such situations.

Whitaker's third point is that the Arab–Israeli conflict serves as a unifying factor for the countries of the Arab League, and also serves as an excuse for repression by Middle Eastern governments. For example, in March 2004 Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's leading Shia cleric, is reported as saying "We have emergency laws, we have control by the security agencies, we have stagnation of opposition parties, we have the appropriation of political rights – all this in the name of the Arab-Israeli conflict". The West, especially the US, is also seen as a supporter of Israel, and so it and its institutions, including democracy, are seen by many Muslims as suspect. Khaled Abou El Fadl, a lecturer in Islamic law at the University of California comments "modernity, despite its much scientific advancement, reached Muslims packaged in the ugliness of disempowerment and alienation."

This repression by secularistic Arab rulers has led to the growth of radical Islamic movement groups, as they believe that the institution of an Islamic theocracy will lead to a more just society. These groups tend to be very intolerant of alternative views however, including the ideas of democracy. Many Muslims who argue that Islam and democracy are compatible live in the West, and are therefore seen as "contaminated" by non-Islamic ideas.

Practice

 * The Green Algeria Alliance is an Islamist coalition of political parties, created for the legislative election, 2012 in Algeria. It consists of the Movement of Society for Peace, Islamic Renaissance Movement (Ennahda) and the Movement for National Reform (Islah). The alliance is led by Bouguerra Soltani of the MSP. However, the incumbent coalition, consisting of the FLN of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the RND of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, held on to power after winning a majority of seats and the Islamist parties of the Green Algeria Alliance lost seats in legislative election of 2012.
 * Shia Islamist Al Wefaq, Salafi Islamist Al Asalah and Sunni Islamist Al-Menbar Islamic Society are dominant democratic forces in Bahrain.
 * During the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan opposed the independence of Bangladesh, but established itself there as an independent political party, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami after 1975. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is the second largest party in the Parliament of Bangladesh and the main opposition party. The BNP promotes a center-right policy combining elements of conservatism, Islamism, nationalism and anti-communism. The party believes that Islam is an integral part of the socio-cultural life of Bangladesh, and favors Islamic principles and cultural views. Since 2000, it has been allied with the Islamic parties Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote.
 * The Party of Democratic Action is the largest political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Party of Democratic Action was founded in May 1990 by reformist Islamist Alija Izetbegović, representing the conservative Bosniaks and other Slavic Muslim population in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia.
 * In the 2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election, the political parties identified as "Islamist" and "democratic" (the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Salafist Al-Nour Party and liberal Islamist Al-Wasat Party) won 75% of the total seats. Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist democrat was the first Islamist president of Egypt, stemming from the Muslim Brotherhood.
 * Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah are two very influential Islamic social movement in Indonesia. United Development Party and the opposition Prosperous Justice Party are major Indonesian Islamist parties, active in country's democratic process.
 * The Islamic Action Front is Jordan's Islamist political party and largest democratic political force in country. The IAF's survival in Jordan is primarily due to its flexibility and less radical approach to politics.
 * The Islamic Group is a Sunni Islamist and Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party in Lebanon.
 * The Justice and Construction Party is the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm in Libya and the second largest political force in the country. National Forces Alliance, largest political group in country, doesn't believe the country should be run entirely by Sharia law or secular law, but does hold that Sharia should be "the main inspiration for legislation". Party leader Jibril has said the NFA is a moderate Islamic movement that recognises the importance of Islam in political life and favours Sharia as the basis of the law.
 * The United Malays National Organisation is the dominant party of Malaysia since that country's independence in 1957. UMNO sees and defines itself as a moderate Islamist, Islamic democratic and social conservative party of Muslim Malays. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party is a major opposition party and is relatively more conservative and traditionalist than the UMNO.
 * The Moroccan Justice and Development Party has been the ruling party in Morocco since November 29, 2011. The Justice and Development Party advocates Islamism and Islamic democracy.
 * The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria is a Sunni Islamist force in Syria and very loosely affiliated to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. It has also been called the "dominant group" or "dominant force" in the Arab Spring uprising in Syria. The group's stated political positions are moderate and in its most recent April 2012 manifesto it "pledges to respect individual rights", to promote pluralism and democracy.
 * The Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan is Tajikistan's Islamist party and main opposition and democratic force in that country.
 * The Ennahda Movement, also known as Renaissance Party or simply Ennahda, is a moderate Islamist political party in Tunisia.   On March 1, 2011, after the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali collapsed in the wake of the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Tunisia's interim government granted the group permission to form a political party. Since then it has become the biggest and most well-organized party in Tunisia, so far outdistancing its more secular competitors. In the Tunisian Constituent Assembly election, 2011, the first honest election in the country's history with a turn out of 51.1% of all eligible voters, the party won 37.04% of the popular vote and 89 (41%) of the 217 assembly seats, far more than any other party.

Pakistan
Early in the history of the state of Pakistan (March 12, 1949), a parliamentary resolution (the Objectives Resolution) was adopted, stating the objectives on which the future constitution of the country was to be based. It contained the basic principles of both Islam and Western Democracy, in accordance with the vision of the founders of the Pakistan Movement (Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan). It proclaimed:

"Sovereignty belongs to Allah alone but He has delegated it to the State of Pakistan through its people for being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him as a sacred trust.
 * The State shall exercise its powers and authority through the elected representatives of the people.
 * The principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed.
 * Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings of Islam as set out in the Quran and Sunnah.
 * Provision shall be made for the religious minorities to freely profess and practice their religions and develop their cultures."

This resolution was included in the 1956 constitution as preamble and in 1985 it was inserted in the constitution itself as Article 2 and Schedule item 53 (but with the word "freely" in Provision shall be made for the religious minorities to freely profess and practice their religions and develop their cultures, removed. ). The resolution was inserted again in the constitution in 2010, with the word "freely" reinstated.

However, Islamisation has proceeded slowly in Pakistan, and Islamists and Islamic parties and activists have expressed frustration that sharia law has not yet been fully implemented.

Indonesia
Officially, Indonesia does not have a state religion, and is in many respects a secular democracy. The constitution of Indonesia gives its people the freedom of worship, according to their religion or belief. This is based on the state ideology of "Pancasila" whose first tenet, Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa, translates as "The One and Almighty God", implying that there is a supreme God that unites the nation. It does not specify any religion, though this is also sometimes mistranslated as an endorsement for monotheism. As a result, Indonesians have a religion column in their identity card; however, it is not mandatory (an empty column will indicate not having a religion) and is only used for censuses (which are a Dutch colonial legacy). The 5th point of practice of the Butir-butir pengamalan Pancasila states "Religion and belief in God Almighty are private matters that concern the human relationship with God Almighty." Sukarno's conception of Pancasila's ideology is not 'secular' in the Western sense, although he agreed with Mahmud Esad Bay and Mustafa Kemal Ataturks' view that Islam should be free of government control. In his speech titled "Islam Sontoloyo" or "Foolish Islam", he was critical of Islamic leaders' misuse of authority to justify wrong actions. According to Yudi Latief, Indonesia's founding leaders, while thoroughly educated and motivated as secularists of the time, were unable to comprehend an Indonesian society without religion. Indonesian nationalist leaders characterized the country as a "religiously neutral state", in which Islam would be separated from the state and that Islamic affairs should be managed by Muslims without the help of the state. A preliminary meeting based on Hatta's initiative agreed that Islamic laws could be used for family laws that are passed by the People's Representative Council, but only if they relate to Muslims, while the 'secular' national criminal code could not to be changed because it applies to all regardless of religion. Sukarno also banned the most popular Islamic party, Masjumi, for alleged involvement in the PRRI rebellion. On 27 January 1953, Sukarno delivered a speech in Amuntai, South Kalimantan, a region with a strong Islamic community. There was a banner reading "Indonesia a Nation State or an Islamic State?" Commenting on the banner, Sukarno said: "The state we want is a nation state consisting of all Indonesia. If we establish a state based on Islam, many areas whose population is not Islamic, such as the Moluccas, Bali, Flores, Timor, the Kai Islands, and Sulawesi, will secede. And West Irian, which has not yet become part of the territory of Indonesia, will not want to be part of the Republic." Sukarno also disagreed with Aceh adopting Islamic criminal laws as its form of sharia bylaws, stating that "Indonesia is a nation state with the ideology of Pancasila, not a theocratic country with a certain religious orientation" and "Muslim's habit of reading the Quran" is also a form of obedience towards sharia. According to Sukarno, religion is a private matter between individuals and god, that could only be regulated through personal or family matters. During the Suharto era, Islamic parties were even more tightly controlled by the government, through the state formation of the United Development Party. Islamic veils were also banned. Nurcholis Majid, one of the prominent young Islamic thinkers at the time, in his speech "The Need for Reform in Islamic Thinking and the Problem of Ummah Integration", considered Indonesian Muslims to be stuck in ideological dogmatism, and as a result had lost dynamism. He therefore coined the famous slogan: "Islam Yes, Islamic Party No". Most of his colleagues considered this to be an endorsement of secularism. However, Abdurrahman Wahid, the fourth president of Indonesia, explained Indonesia's case as "mild secularism". Neither man considered themselves to be secularist and preferred to use 'secularisation', acknowledging the concern that secularism as an ideology could become a new closed world view functioning like a new religion.

However, in 1970, another political movement centered in students small groups of university students called "liqo" started. It was directly inspired by Hassan al-Banna's Muslim Brotherhood, the proponent of which is Hilmi Aminuddin, which advocates for a gradual change to become more ideal Muslim. This coalesced in the formation of the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Union (KAMMI) in 1998, which alongside Abdurrahman Wahid's Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Amien Rais' Muhammadiyah as student leaders formed the groups of student protests against Suharto's government. After the fall of Suharto, KAMMI became the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), while NU and Muhammadiyah chose not to be involved in practical politics of winning elections and instead formed independent political parties aligned to, but independent of, their Islamic organizations, in the form of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and National Mandate Party (PAN). The democratic reforms led to calls for the adoption of Islamic sharia law in the form of the Jakarta Charter in national legislative body (MPR) in 2002. However, it was rejected, with even the PKB and PAN voting against it.

This was because the two largest Muslim organizations of Indonesia, NU and Muhammadiyah, very much accepted the Pancasila 'secularism' basis of the country. NU and the party closest to it, PKB (Abdurrahman's party), is member of Centrist Democrat International, which also contains the German CDU as well as the Hungarian Fidesz party. Indonesia has a party associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the PKS, but even it has to commit to the state ideology, which means it is pluralist. Islamic groups that stray from and tried to change Pancasila such as HTI (Indonesian branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir) are banned even though they 'participated' in a democracy.

In a practical sense, in central government levels, Indonesia has six recognized religions, as these are the recognized majority religions of most Indonesians and received state support.

In the Ministry of Religion Affairs, there are separate religious leader administrators for each of the six major religions. Sometimes the president or government members in a formal speech will greet audiences using in all six religious greetings. An example of this was in President Joko Widodo's speech on March 26, 2021. In which he used all religious greetings including:
 * "Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh" for Muslims
 * "Salam Sejahtera" and "Shaloom" for Christians and Catholics
 * "Om Swastyastu" for Hindus
 * "Namo Buddhaya" for Buddhists
 * "Salam Kebajikan" or "Wei De Dong Tian" (惟德動天) for Kong Hu Cu (Confucians)

Some Indonesian Muslims have long had problems with the implementation of sharia law, seeing it as not necessary and infringing on the non-Muslim population, while others see the implementation of some sharia-based laws as a solution to a failed and corrupt democratic process. In the 1960s, the "Darul Islam" rebellion tried to forcefully form an "Islamic State of Indonesia" although they were eventually defeated. Its regional offshoot based in Aceh advocated for independence, and continued an insurgency for a separate Islamic Aceh country. As a result of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and negotiations facilitated by the Swedish government (Hasan di Tiro had a Swedish passport and lived there in exile) as well as the Finnish government, the Helsinki MoU was signed ending the conflict. Indonesia would allow Aceh to adopt its own version of law called Qanun, and Aceh would stop fighting for independence and adopt the special autonomy law.

Theory
Since the revolution in Iran, the largest Shia country, Twelver Shia political thought has been dominated by that of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder and leader of the revolution. Khomeini argued that in the absence of the Hidden Imam and other divinely-appointed figures (in whom ultimate political authority rests), Muslims have not only the right, but also the obligation to establish an "Islamic state". To that end they must turn to scholars of Islamic law (fiqh) who are qualified to interpret the Quran and the writings of the imams.

Once in power and recognizing the need for more flexibility, Khomeini modified some earlier positions, insisted the ruling jurist need not be one of the most learned, that Sharia rule was subordinate to interests of Islam (Maslaha—"expedient interests" or "public welfare" ), and the "divine government" as interpreted by the ruling jurists, who could overrule Sharia if necessary to serve those interests. The Islamic "government, which is a branch of the absolute governance of the Prophet of God, is among the primary ordinances of Islam, and has precedence over all 'secondary' ordinances."

The last point was made in December 1987, when Khomieni issued a fatwa in support of the Islamic government's attempt to pass a labor protection bill not in accordance with sharia. He ruled that in the Islamic state, governmental ordinances were primary ordinances, and that the Islamic state has absolute right to enact state commandments, taking precedence over "all secondary ordinances such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage".

"Were the powers of government to lie only within the framework of secondary divine decrees, the designation of the divine government and absolute deputed guardianship (wilayat-i mutlaqa-yi mufawwada) to the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his progeny) would have been in practice entirely without meaning and content. ... I must point out, the government which is a branch of the absolute governance of the Prophet of God is among the primary ordinances of Islam, and has precedence over all secondary ordinances such as prayer (salat), fasting (sawm), and pilgrimage (hajj)."

The idea and concept of Islamic democracy has been accepted by many Iranian clerics, scholars and intellectuals. The most notable of those who have accepted the theory of Islamic democracy is probably Iran's Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who mentions Islamic democracy as "Mardomsalarie Dini" in his speeches. Nevertheless, Khamenei openly expresses his opposition to liberal democracy, having said, "Islam naturally stands against liberal democracy."

There are also other Iranian scholars who oppose or at least criticise the concept of Islamic democracy. Among the most popular of them are Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi who have written: "If not referring to the people votes would result in accusations of tyranny then it is allowed to accept people vote as a secondary commandment." Also Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi has more or less the same viewpoint.

Practice
Some Iranians, including Mohammad Khatami, categorize the Islamic Republic of Iran as a kind of religious democracy. They maintain that Ruhollah Khomeini held the same view as well and that's why he strongly chose "Jomhoorie Eslami" (Islamic Republic) over "Hokoomate Eslami" (Islamic State).

Others maintain that not only is the Islamic Republic of Iran undemocratic (see Politics of Iran) but that Khomeini himself opposed the principle of democracy in his book Hokumat-e Islami: Wilayat al-Faqih, where he denied the need for any legislative body saying, "no one has the right to legislate ... except ... the Divine Legislator", and during the Islamic Revolution, when he told Iranians, "Do not use this term, 'democratic.' That is the Western style." Although it is in contrast with his commandment to Mehdi Bazargan. It is a subject of lively debate among pro-Islamic Iranian intelligentsia. Also they maintain that Iran's sharia courts, the Islamic Revolutionary Court, blasphemy laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Islamic religious police violate the principles of democratic governance. However, it should be understood that when a democracy is accepted to be Islamic by people, the law of Islam becomes the democratically ratified law of that country. Iranians have ratified the constitution in which the principle rules are explicitly mentioned as the rules of Islam to which other rules should conform. Khomeini fervently believed that principles of democracy can't provide the targeted justice of Islam in the Sharia and Islamic thoughts.(Mohaghegh. Behnam 2014) This contrast of view between the two Iranian head leaders of this Islamic country, as above mentioned about Khatami's and Khomeini's views have provisionally been being a case of disaffiliation of nearly half a country in most probable political coincidence, so the people cognizant of this heterogeneous political belief shall not be affiliated by newly formed views of democratic principles.(Mohaghegh, Behnam 2014)

A number of deviations from traditional sharia regulations have been noted in Iran

"... the financial system has barely been Islamized; Christians, for example, are not subject to a poll tax and pay according to the common scheme. Insurance is maintained (even though chance, the very basis for insurance should theoretically be excluded from all contracts). The contracts signed with foreigners all accept the matter of interest."

Indices of democracy in Muslim countries
There are several non-governmental organizations that publish and maintain indices of democracy in the world, according to their own various definitions of the term, and rank countries as being free, partly free, or unfree using various measures of freedom, including political rights, economic rights, freedom of the press and civil liberties.

The following lists Muslim-majority countries and shows the scores given by two frequently used indices: 2022 Democracy Index (The Economist) and 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices for electoral democracy. These indices are frequently used in Western media, but have attracted some criticism and may not reflect recent changes.

 * Key: ‡ – Disputed territory (according to Freedom House)

Islamic democratic parties and organizations
This is a list of parties and organizations which aim for the implementation of Sharia or an Islamic State, or subscribe to Muslim identity politics, or in some other way fulfil the definitions of political Islam, activist Islam, or Islamism laid out in this article; or have been widely described as such by others.

title: Islam and democracy


text:
Talk:Fifth Dawn

Untitled
What is this about? Please provide context for ignorant people like me. Andries 14:18, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Well, there is the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. The cards come out in sets. Fifth Dawn is one of them. Perhaps the article could be made more approachable for someone who found it through recent changes or random page and doesn't know anything about the game, but I currently have no idea... Grue 14:32, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Fifth Dawn


text:
John Thwaites (Australian politician)

Johnstone William "John" Thwaites is an Australian former politician, and served as Deputy Premier of the state of Victoria from 1999 to 2007.

Early life and education
Thwaites was born in Oxford, England, and came to Australia as a child with his family.

He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Monash University, Melbourne, where he graduated in science and law. He practised as a barrister before entering politics. He was a ministerial advisor to Labor Party state government ministers Jim Kennan and Andrew McCutcheon before being elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Albert Park.

Local council and mayor
Thwaites was elected to the South Melbourne City Council in 1985 and served until 1993, and was Mayor in 1991–92.

State Parliament
Thwaites entered Parliament at the 1992 election, as member for the inner city seat of Albert Park. Labor, having been in office for ten years, suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of the Liberal Party under Jeff Kennett. In the last three years of its term, Labor, under Joan Kirner, had presided over a sharp recession and a series of financial disasters including the forced sale of the State Bank of Victoria, and the collapse of Pyramid Building Society. Most commentators expected Labor to be in opposition for many years.

In the greatly reduced Labor Caucus, Thwaites gained rapid promotion. He became Shadow Minister for Health in January 1994, Shadow Minister for Health and Community Services in April 1996, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in December 1996. Thwaites belonged to neither of the dominant factions of the Victorian Labor Party, the right-wing Labor Unity or the left-wing Socialist Left, and was an acceptable compromise candidate as Deputy to the then Opposition Leader, John Brumby.

Labor was again heavily defeated at the 1996 election, and it became apparent that the party could not recover under Brumby's leadership. Thwaites had been a loyal deputy to Brumby, although in March 1999 he supported moves to have Brumby resign. Thwaites could not become leader himself because he had a small factional base, but instead supported Steve Bracks for the leadership.

As Shadow Minister for Health, Thwaites campaigned against the Kennett Government’s cuts to health and the privatisation of ambulance services. He used Freedom of Information documents to highlight long delays in hospital emergency departments and health budget cuts. (“Austin in patient crisis, says Labor”, The Age, 3 October 1996.) Thwaites also highlighted concerns about privatisation of ambulance dispatching to a private company, Intergraph, which the Auditor General found “at best involved serious mismanagement or, at worst, constituted corrupt activity”. (“State backs Intergraph reports bid”, The Age, 3 September 1999). The Intergraph affair and concerns about hospital privatisation and ambulance services were major issues in the 1999 state election.

Deputy Leader
In September 1999 Bracks polled surprisingly well in the election, and three rural independent members gave Labor the opportunity to govern as a minority government. As Deputy Leader, Thwaites became Deputy Premier and was given the senior Health portfolio, with a mandate to increase funding to the public health system which had been the subject of cutbacks under the Liberal government. He was also Minister for Planning from 1999 to February 2002. Shortly after taking office, Thwaites cancelled the proposed privatisation of the Austin Hospital and announced plans for the government to rebuild the hospital with public funds. (“Labor to cancel Austin hospital privatisation” The Age 28 October 1999)   (“Can the new government fix health? The Age 20 November 1999). Like all state health ministers, he had only limited success in reducing waiting lists at public hospitals, but did succeed in restoring the numbers of nurses.

One of Thwaites first actions as Health Minister was to ban smoking in restaurants. He later introduced legislation to ban smoking in gaming venues.

As Planning Minister, Thwaites put controls on high-rise development around Port Phillip Bay and introduced a residential planning code, Rescode, to preserve neighbourhood character in planning decisions. He also initiated "Melbourne 2030", a 30-year strategy plan for Melbourne.

After the November 2002 state election, at which Labor was returned with a record majority, Thwaites was appointed Minister for Environment, Water and Victorian Communities. Thwaites' term as Minister for Water coincided with the millennium drought in southeast Australia that put significant pressure on urban and rural water supplies. Premier Steve Bracks and Thwaites led a major water saving campaign commencing in 2003 that  by 2006 had reduced water use per head by 22 per cent compared to the 1990s.

Thwaites introduced major reforms to water policy and legislation in Victoria including giving the environment a statutory right to water, reforming irrigation water rights and establishing sustainable water planning strategies. He also oversaw programs to return environmental flows to the Murray, Snowy, and Thomson Rivers.

In 2007, after Victoria had experienced its worst year of drought and the lowest streamflows in the state's history, Premier Steve Bracks and Thwaites announced the "Our Water Our Future" plan which included a new desalination plant at Wonthaggi, modernising Victoria’s irrigation system to save water lost through inefficiencies, expanding a water grid across Victoria and increased recycling and water conservation.

As Minister for Environment, Thwaites introduced measures to lower greenhouse emissions and water consumption. Victoria was the first state to introduce five-star energy efficiency requirements for new homes together with incentives for rainwater tanks and solar hot water.

Thwaites also oversaw a major expansion of Victoria's national park system, including creation of the Great Otway National Park, and removed cattle grazing from the Alpine National Park.

In the second term of the Bracks government, Thwaites led the development of the government's social justice strategy, "A Fairer Victoria", working with other social policy ministers. The strategy committed $788 million in the 2005 state budget and $818 million in the 2006 budget to tackle disadvantage across a range of areas including early childhood development, mental health, disability, and community development. It was described by the head of the Brotherhood of St Laurence as “an unprecedented effort to make Victoria a better place for those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. ”

Thwaites was re-elected at Victorian elections 2006 with a comfortable but slightly reduced majority. While there was some speculation he might be dumped as Deputy Premier, Premier Bracks has supported him continuing in this role. In the cabinet re-shuffle after the election he became minister for climate change but lost the portfolio of Victorian communities.

In June 2007, amid rumours of Bracks resigning as premier, there was a series of leaks from inside government about Mr Thwaites and his family being given free accommodation, lift passes, food and drink at ski resorts over the last five years without declaring it. The family stayed at government-owned apartments at the invitation of the management boards, which he had appointed. Documents obtained under freedom-of-information laws show Thwaites made 17 taxpayer-funded visits to Victoria's snowfields and national parks between 2003 and 2007. He had eight stays at Tidal River on Wilsons Promontory, five trips to Mount Hotham and two each to Mount Buller and Falls Creek in the four years he was environment minister. Expenses for the trips, which each required at least one night's accommodation, totalled more than $17,500.

Resignation
When Premier Steve Bracks announced his surprise resignation on 27 July 2007, only hours later Thwaites announced he too would resign. He said he had been Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party in Victoria for ten years and it was now time "to give someone else a go and bring in some new blood". He officially resigned on 30 July 2007 and from parliament on 6 August 2007.

After politics
After leaving politics, Thwaites became a professor at Monash University and chair of Monash Sustainable Development Institute and ClimateWorks Australia.

He has also been appointed to a number of senior board positions, including president, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), chair Australian Building Codes Board, chair the Climate Group, chair Peter Cullen Trust, and director of Green Building Council of Australia and Fair Trade Australia New Zealand. He was also a consultant to Maddocks Solicitors with specialty areas of practice in environment, water and climate change between 2008 and 2015.

In 2011, Thwaites was appointed as chair of the Australian Building Codes Board, the body responsible for developing and managing Australia's building regulations. In 2012, he was appointed as chair of the National Sustainability Council that provides independent advice to the Australian Government on sustainability issues and produces independent reports on sustainability indicators and trends.

Thwaites is currently the chair of Melbourne Water, which manages Melbourne’s water, sewerage, drainage and waterway health, and sits on a number of water advisory bodies.

Thwaites has been appointed to a number of reviews and advisory bodies for the federal and state governments. In 2016, the Victorian Government appointed him with Terry Mulder and Patricia Faulkner to conduct an independent review of retail electricity and gas markets.

The review recommended major reforms to energy pricing for households and small business including a "no frills" electricity price to be regulated by the Essential Services Commission, the end of misleading marketing, and requiring retailers to fix offer prices for 12 months. The Victorian Government has now implemented most of these reforms.

In 2017, amid public concern about flammable cladding on buildings, Thwaites was appointed with former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu to co-chair the Victorian Cladding Taskforce to oversee the investigation and audit of buildings with dangerous cladding. Following recommendations of the Cladding Taskforce, the Victorian Government conducted a statewide audit of multi-story buildings, boosted enforcement of building regulations and announced a $600 million plan to remove dangerous cladding from buildings.

Since leaving politics, Thwaites has worked with governments, business and academics to promote sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In 2012, he was appointed by the Australian Government as chair of the National Sustainability Council to provide independent advice to the government on sustainability issues. The Council produced the Sustainable Australia Report 2013. He currently chairs the National Sustainable Development Council, which in 2018 produced the "Transforming Australia: SDG Progress report" on Australia's progress in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is currently co-chair of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to mobilise universities in support of the SDGs.

In July 2020, Thwaites was appointed to The Lancet Covid-19 Commission, which aims to speed up global and equitable solutions to the pandemic.

Recognition and awards
Thwaites was appointed Member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to the environment, and to the people and Parliament of Victoria" in the 2021 Australia Day Honours.

title: John Thwaites (Australian politician)


text:
George Smalridge

George Smalridge (alias Smallridge; 18 May 1662 – 27 September 1719) was Bishop of Bristol (1714–1719).

Life
Smalridge was born at Lichfield, son of the Sheriff of Lichfield Thomas Smalridge, George received his early education, this being completed at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford.

His political opinions were largely modelled on those of his friend Francis Atterbury, with whom he was associated at Oxford and elsewhere. After being a tutor at Christ Church, he was minister of two chapels in London, and for six or seven years he acted as deputy for William Jane, the regius professor of divinity at Oxford; his Jacobite opinions, however, prevented him from securing this position when it fell vacant in 1707.

In 1711, he was made dean of Carlisle Cathedral and canon of Christ Church, and in 1713 he succeeded Atterbury as dean of Christ Church. In the following year he was appointed bishop of Bristol, but retained his deanery. In 1715 Smalridge refused to sign the declaration against the pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, defending his action in his Reasons for not signing the Declaration. In other ways also he showed animus against the house of Hanover, but his only punishment was his removal from the post of lord almoner to the king.

The bishop was esteemed by Swift, Steele, Whiston and other famous men of his day, while Dr Johnson declared his sermons to be of the highest class.

Works

 * Sixty Sermons, preached on Several Occasions, 1726. Other editions 1827, 1832, 1853 and 1862.
 * The Life of Grabe

title: George Smalridge


text:
Prus III coat of arms

Herb Prus III is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The son of Prince of Prussia (which the Christian faith has passed, and married an only child, a daughter Maslausa, his coat of arms of Prussia, two deadly scythe given them) while his married the heiress of a great fortune coat of arms  Pobóg  (for God) - (Kasper Niesiecki binds Pobóg arms with the arms Zagłoba directly and indirectly with hawkweed), his coat of arms Prus II, as and father did, half a horseshoe in handy. Then, when a descendant of the Sobor, valiantly in the war lost the starting leg, King Boleslaw sent him a reward and on the helmet, not the hand but the golden leg armed, to commemorate the bravery of his, wear allowed. This herb is also called Nagody, it means that for God or weddings, a variety of coat of arms was created.

Shield in pole split in the right red - wolf silver knife blade down toward the center rotated in the left blue - half of silver horseshoe nailed to a one and a half gold cross, the lower arm to the right, the jewel foot armed with a spur, in knee bent, foot to the left.

Notable bearers
Notable bearers of this coat of arms include:

 * Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski
 * Antoni Barnaba Jabłonowski
 * Anna Jabłonowska
 * Krzemiński

title: Prus III coat of arms


text:
The Sims: Livin' Large

The Sims: Livin' Large (released in Europe as The Sims: Livin' It Up) a 2000 expansion to The Sims developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The first of several expansions to The Sims, Livin' Large introduces several new objects and architecture features, new characters and careers. The expansion was designed with a more humorous and unusual tone to broaden the creative direction and scenarios in the game. Upon release, Livin' Large received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed to the unique and unusual range of interactive objects, and criticism to the expansion's largely cosmetic approach. In 2002, Livin' Large was combined with the original game and packaged by Electronic Arts as The Sims Deluxe.

Gameplay

Primarily a content-based expansion, Livin' Large adds 125 new items for sims to purchase in the 'Buy Mode' of the game. Some items are decorative, and others are interactive. Some interactive items feature additional effects and new non-player characters, including a magic lamp that, when rubbed, spawns a genie that can grant the player wishes with random good or bad outcomes, a chemistry lab that can create potions with positive and negative effects, including turning the drinker into a monster, and a robotic servitor that can assist with housework. Sims can contract a potentially fatal illness from a bite from the guinea pig included in this expansion. The 'Vibromatic Heart Bed' items allows a pair of sims in love to 'Play in Bed' once the bed is occupied and vibrating, providing a chance that the female Sim will become pregnant with a baby. Livin' Large also features five new career paths: Slacker, Hacker, Journalist, Paranormal and Musician. The expansion expands the default number of lots in the game by increasing the number of neighborhoods.

Livin' Large introduces complex interactions with two non-player characters: the Tragic Clown and Grim Reaper. The Tragic Clown is a character that spawns if the painting of the same name is placed on the lot and an occupant is on the lot. If the Tragic Clown appears, they will attempt to cheer the player by performing tricks and always fail, decreasing the sim's mood even further. Removing the Tragic Clown requires the player to raise the mood of all sims on the lot, or set the painting on fire. The Grim Reaper is a character that appears when a Sim dies, interacting with the corpse to remove the Sim from the game. Other Sims can interact with the Grim Reaper and 'Plead' to save the life of the Sim before the Reaper has removed them. This prompts a game of Rock Paper Scissors, where if won, the dead Sim will be revived, or if lost, the dead Sim will either be removed or be turned into a zombie.

Development and release
The design objective of Livin' Large was to introduce new elements to the game that created gameplay and stories that "further engaged the imagination of the player". Lead designer Will Wright stated that the expansion focused on a "novel humour" and "wacky style" in contrast with the "neutral" tone of the original game in order to help "spark the creativity of players" and "take the game into weird, twisted directions". Wright took a reduced role in the design of the expansion to focus on The Sims Online, with codesigner Chris Trottier having a stronger responsibility for the implementation of the game, although the Tragic Clown was Wright's "pet object" for suggested inclusion in the expansion. Electronic Arts engaged studio New Pencil Incorporated to create new assets for Livin' Large and future expansions. Development of the expansion was streamlined by using asset libraries to introduce sets of objects and architecture with a similar "look and feel", such as the set of castle-themed items. Some assets, including skins, were created as user-made modifications and selected by designers for inclusion in the game. Aspyr Media announced and released a Mac port for the game in November 2000. In 2002, EA released The Sims Deluxe, a combination of The Sims and Livin' Large, with additional clothing options and The Sims Creator tool.

Sales
Domestically, Livin' Large sold 263,076 units and earned $6.99 million by the end of October 2000, according to PC Data. By the end of the year, its sales totaled 595,410 units ($16.1 million) in the United States alone. This made it the country's sixth-best-selling computer game of 2000. Livin' Large remained the United States' sixth-highest computer game seller in 2001, with domestic sales of 818,600 units and revenues of $22.9 million that year alone.

Reviews
The Sims: Livin' Large received "generally favorable" reviews from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics generally praised the distinctive gameplay and object additions. Many reviews noted the additions reinforced a stranger and more light-hearted tone, with Andrew Park of GameSpot highlighting the "exciting" and "absurd" side effects of many new objects, and Brian Wright of GamePro noting the "crazy settings" of the gothic and space-age desing themes. Vincent Lopez of IGN commended the "weirder aspects" of the expansion, stating they made the game "a little more surreal than in the original title" and helped the player create "weirder" families, scenarios and storylines. Carl Salminen of Ars Technica acknowle additions added a "new dimension to the game", but noted whilst some players would enjoy the "randomness and element of chaos" to gameplay, others would find them frustrating.

Many reviewers noted the additions of Livin' Large were mostly cosmetic aspects of the expansion and did not fundamentally alter the core mechanics of gameplay,  with Vincent Lopez of IGN proverbially describing the game as a "new wallpaper on the same walls" of The Sims. Cam Shea of Hyper critiqued the expansion for not fixing technical issues with the game, including pathfinding bugs. Some critics also noted that many of the expansion's additions were similar to user-created downloadable objects, undermining their need. However, Andrew Park of GameSpot noted that the expansion did not aim to "make drastic improvements on the core game" and succeeded in its purpose of adding new content, furnishing and options to the game for players.

title: The Sims: Livin' Large


text:
Ghost of a Dog

Ghost of a Dog is the second album by American alternative rock band Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, released in 1990.

In the printed lyrics that accompany the album, each song has a word with a single letter missing. In order, they spell out "ghost of a dog."

The album sold about 500,000 copies. After a tour in support of the album, the band decided to take an indefinite hiatus.

Production
The album was produced by Tony Berg. Unlike on the debut, where many tracks used session musicians, the New Bohemians play throughout Ghost of a Dog.

Critical reception
The Los Angeles Times thought that "Brickell and the Bohemians band do a reasonable job of recycling the soothing elements of ‘60s pop-folk, but her own views are so childlike and her images so often pointless that it’s hard to work up any feeling for them." Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Brickell can write lyrically about the difference between the desire for romantic independence and desire itself. But just when she starts to show some grit, she’ll drift toward smiley-faced ditties like 'Oak Cliff Bra' — songs so cloying they make you wonder if Brickell underwent a lobotomy between tracks." The New York Times declared that none of the songs recaptured the charm of the first album's "What I Am". The Chicago Tribune wrote that Brickell's "ability to write wisely about the bad stuff of romance with a marked lack of anger toward the opposite sex makes her unique and-for postmodern romantics-endearing."

Personnel
The New Bohemians
 * Edie Brickell – vocals, acoustic guitar
 * Kenny Withrow – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, dobro, slide guitar, backing vocals
 * Wes Burt-Martin – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals, string arrangements (9)
 * Brad Houser – bass
 * Matt Chamberlain – drums
 * John Bush – percussion

Additional musicians
 * Tony Berg – keyboards, guitars, string arrangements (9)
 * Paul Fox – keyboards
 * Danny Timms – acoustic piano (1)
 * Jo-El Sonnier – accordion (3)
 * Paul "Wix" Wickens – keyboards (8)
 * David Mansfield – acoustic guitar (8)
 * Larry Corbett – cello (9)
 * Novi Novog – viola (9)
 * Sid Page – violin (9)
 * John Lydon – backing vocals (8)

Production

 * Tony Berg – producer, mixing (5, 14)
 * Chris Lord-Alge – recording
 * Susan Rogers – recording, mixing (7, 12)
 * David Thoener – recording
 * Ken Jordan – additional recording
 * Greg Goldman – assistant engineer
 * Mike Reiter – assistant engineer
 * Bob Clearmountain – mixing (1–4, 6, 8–11, 13)
 * George Marino – mastering
 * Robin Sloane – creative director
 * Lyn Bradley – design, layout
 * Janet Wolsborn – design, layout
 * Ann Cutting – photographic tinting

Studios
 * Recorded at Bearsville Studios (Bearsville, New York); The Village Recorder and Zeitgeist Studios (Los Angeles, California).
 * Mixed at A&M Studios (Hollywood, California).
 * Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York).

Charts
Album – Billboard (United States)

Singles – Billboard (United States)

title: Ghost of a Dog


text:
John Chadwick

John Chadwick, (21 May 1920 – 24 November 1998) was an English linguist and classical scholar who was most notable for the decipherment, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B.

Early life, education and wartime service
John Chadwick was born at 18 Christ Church Road, Mortlake, Surrey, on 21 May 1920, the younger son of Margaret Pamela (née Bray) and Fred Chadwick, civil servant. He was educated at St Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Chadwick volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1940 after completing the first year of his classics course at Cambridge. At first he served in the Mediterranean as an ordinary seaman aboard the light cruiser HMS Coventry and saw action when his ship was torpedoed by an Italian submarine and dive-bombed. In 1942 he was sent ashore at Alexandria for an interview by the Chief of Naval Intelligence and was immediately assigned to intelligence duties in Egypt and promoted to Temporary Sub Lieutenant in the RNVR. Thereafter he worked on Italian codes. Chadwick deduced from some R/T traffic meant to be handled at Bletchley Park that a British submarine had been sunk near Taranto.

In 1944, he was transferred to Bletchley Park ("Station X"), learned Japanese, and worked on reading the encoded messages sent by the Japanese naval representatives in Stockholm and Berlin.

After the end of the war in 1945, he returned to his studies at Cambridge, graduating with First Class Honours in Classics Part II, with a distinction in his special subject, linguistics. While studying at Corpus Christi College, he attempted, with some of his fellow students, to use cryptographic methods to decipher the "Minoan Linear Script B". They were already aware at the time of the work of Michael Ventris. They stopped working actively on the problem owing to a lack of published data from inscriptions.

Career
In 1950 he published his first scholarly work, an edition of The Medical Works of Hippocrates, co-authored with his cousin, William Neville Mann, a distinguished physician. After finishing his degree, he joined the staff of the Oxford Latin Dictionary before beginning a Classics lectureship at Cambridge in 1952. In July that year he heard a radio broadcast by Michael Ventris about his work on Linear B and offered his help as "a mere philologist". The men began to collaborate on the progressive decipherment of Linear B, writing Documents in Mycenean Greek in 1956, following a controversial first paper three years earlier. Chadwick's philological ideas were applied to Ventris's initial theory that Linear B was an early form of Greek rather than another Mediterranean language.

After Ventris's death, Chadwick became the figurehead of the Linear B work, writing the accessible and popular book The Decipherment of Linear B in 1958 and revising Documents in Mycenaean Greek in 1978.

He retired in 1984, by which time he had become the fourth (and last) Perceval Maitland Laurence Reader in Classics at Cambridge. He continued his scholarship until his death, being an active member of several international societies and writing numerous popular and academic articles. He was also a Fellow of the British Academy and of Downing College, Cambridge.

Family
Chadwick married Joan Hill in 1947. They had one son, Camden Chadwick.

Decorations and awards

 * 1992: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
 * 1997: International Antonio Feltrinelli Prize

title: John Chadwick


text:
Thrud the Barbarian

Thrud the Barbarian is a comics character created by British artist Carl Critchlow in 1981. Although Thrud himself is a parody of Conan the Barbarian, particularly as depicted in the Arnold Schwarzenegger films, inspiration for the character's adventures and adversaries has been drawn from several fantasy sources.

During the 1980s, a Thrud comic strip was a regular and popular feature in the roleplay and wargame magazine White Dwarf with Thrud's grotesque and comic antics forming a memorable part of the magazine's golden age. In 2002, continued interest in the character from role-playing enthusiasts and a desire to be free to experiment with a new artistic style prompted Critchlow to self-publish a series of award-winning full-length Thrud the Barbarian comics.

Since October 2002, Critchlow has continued to develop his new artistic style in several different 2000 AD stories, contributing to the success of Lobster Random in particular. While Critchlow's use of muted palettes has been criticised, his style has received praise for being highly recognisable and unique.

Initial publications
The character of Thrud was created by the then 18-year-old Critchlow in 1981 while he was at foundation art college. His graphic design tutor, Bryan Talbot, gave him the project of producing a comic strip. At the time, Critchlow was reading the Conan books by Robert E. Howard, and this inspired him to produce Thrud. The initial five-page strip was published in comics fanzine Arken Sword. When Critchlow moved on to art college in Liverpool, Thrud made a further appearance in the comic Dead 'Ard, which Critchlow co-authored with artist Euan Smith. Dead 'Ard also featured a strip titled The Black Currant, subsequently re-published in the 26th and final issue of the Warrior comic anthology. The Black Currant would later appear as one of Thrud's many enemies.

White Dwarf
On seeing an advertisement in White Dwarf magazine asking for cartoonists, Critchlow submitted some of his Thrud strips and was hired. Thrud the Barbarian became a monthly feature in White Dwarf between issue 45 in September 1983 and issue 105 in September 1988. During this time, the black-and-white single-page strip was voted "Most popular feature" for three consecutive years.

In 1987, a collection of Thrud strips was published in a Thrud the Barbarian Graffik Novel by Games Workshop. In addition to strips that had been printed in White Dwarf, this anthology included a re-drawn version of the original Arken Sword strip and an origin story for Thrud.

Full-length comic
Once the Thrud strip had run its course in White Dwarf, Critchlow worked on other comics including the Judge Dredd/Batman crossover story The Ultimate Riddle, first published in 1995. His work on this story was fully painted, and while considered impressive was also criticised as being forced, confused and muddy. Critchlow was developing a new style based on line-drawings with computer colouring, but having been pigeon-holed as a painter did not believe that he would be able to interest anyone in this very different style.

When attending gaming conventions, Critchlow found that he was often remembered for his work on Thrud and recognised that there was still an interest in the character. He therefore decided to create and self-publish a full-length Thrud the Barbarian comic as a way to get his new style noticed. A total of five Thrud the Barbarian comics were published:
 * 1) Carborundum Capers – June 2002
 * 2) Ice 'n' a Slice – January 2003
 * 3) Lava Louts – June 2004
 * 4) Thrud Rex! – June 2005
 * 5) Bungle in the Jungle – January 2007

Critchlow found that, by organising distribution through comic shops and a devoted Thrud website, he was able to break even financially. His new style was also noticed and received positive comments.

The cover images for each of the first four comics were hand-painted in contrast to the computer-coloured line art used in the comic itself. For issue 5, Critchlow also used his new style for the cover image.

Fictional character biography
An origin story for Thrud was printed in the Thrud the Barbarian Graffik Novel. The story tells of a group of mercenaries who, lost and searching for a pub, stumble across an abandoned baby in a deserted village. The mercenaries decide to raise the baby as one of their own, teaching him how to fight and drink beer.

At the age of five, Thrud is sent to Crom the Destroyer Orthodox Pagan Infants School, where he towers above the teachers and his fellow students. When one of the children shoots him with a pea shooter, Thrud's reaction is to kill and maim twenty-seven pupils and three teachers, leading to his expulsion from the school. Choosing to return to the wilderness rather than his adoptive parents, Thrud lives alone until, one day, he stumbles across a hidden burial chamber. Finding a small helmet and a large axe, Thrud arms himself. Finding gold and gems, he decides to return to civilisation with his newfound wealth, quickly establishing himself a reputation as a violent warrior.

Many years later, Thrud the Barbarian becomes Thrud the King, but finds the mundane duties of kingship tiresome without opportunities to fight. To put a halt to Thrud's constant mutterings of, "Kill! Death! Maim! Mutilate! Destroy!", the wise men of his kingdom collect stories of heroism from around the land and read them to him long into the night.

Characterisation
Endowed with the strength of a rhinoceros, the speed and agility of a jungle cat and the intelligence of a garden snail, Thrud is a one-dimensional character who engages in mindless slaughter and strikes Frank Frazetta-style poses while remaining ignorant of plot points. Depicted as an 8 ft barbarian with a hugely exaggerated, muscular physique and a very small head, and dressed in large furry boots and a loincloth, Thrud is a caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian.

Thrud is also a heavy drinker, frequenting The Hobbit's Armpit tavern and regularly causing mayhem when he is unable to have his desired flavour of crisps. These and other annoyances often cause Thrud to invoke the author of the Conan the Barbarian books with the battle cry, "By the sacred jockstrap of Robert E. Howard you'll pay for this, Hellspawn!"

The Black Currant
First appearing in Dead 'Ard and Warrior, The Black Currant returned in a series of White Dwarf Thrud strips titled Thrud the Destroyer. In this story, The Black Currant is the leader of a horde of warriors who attack a small village, looting the homes, burning the women, raping the livestock and eating the babies. The Black Currant returned again in issue 3 of Critchlow's self-published Thrud the Barbarian comic as the leader of a group of bandits laying siege to a small town. The Black Currant is depicted in heavy black armour, wearing a helmet provided with a pair of exceedingly long, horizontally extending horns.

Carl Critchlow
Critchlow himself appears in a number of Thrud strips, occasionally as a narrator although more often as a drinking companion for Thrud. Critchlow depicts himself with lank hair and a large cap pulled down low over his eyes.

Croneman the Cimpletan
Croneman claims to be the mightiest barbarian of the northern tribes and honorary chief of the savage bezerkers of Nid. Known also as Amoron, the Wombat, he is a slayer, a reaver, a corsair, a usurper, and a conqueror. Depicted as resembling Schwarzenegger, he is also a bodybuilder with a very silly accent. On first meeting Croneman, Thrud slices him in half with a sword. When Croneman returns to join a group of mercenaries fighting The Black Currant in Thrud the Destroyer, he is depicted with a line of sutures running down the middle of his face and chest.

Lymara, the She Wildebeeste
Thrud first encounters Lymara when he sees her chasing away a wasp by waving a small cloth from her tower bedroom. Thinking her to be a damsel in distress, Thrud storms the tower, killing Lymara's father, five brothers, two uncles, ten cousins and fiance in the process. Seeking revenge, Lymara attempts to poison Thrud with a bottle of Acme "Mammoth Poison", but succeeds only in putting him to sleep as part of The Three Tasks of Thrud series of strips. Subsequently, Lymara joins Thrud as one of the group of mercenaries brought in to fight The Black Currant in Thrud the Destroyer. In this latter series of strips, Lymara is depicted with oversized breasts barely covered by an off-the-shoulder leather bra.

To-Me Ku-Pa
To-Me Ku-Pa (a name phonetically similar to that of British comedian Tommy Cooper) is an evil necromancer who regularly crosses paths with Thrud and is depicted as a bald man wearing a large cloak. Thrud first encounters To-Me Ku-Pa in an early White Dwarf strip and is turned into a frog. Subsequently, in The Three Tasks of Thrud, To-Me Ku-Pa takes advantage of Thrud's drugged state, following Lymara's failed assassination attempt, to hypnotise him and force him to obtain three items necessary for a spell.

In Thrud the Destroyer, To-Me Ku-Pa is revealed as being in service to The Black Currant and is providing him with an army of warriors drawn from throughout time, including daleks and Imperial stormtroopers. To-Me Ku-Pa also appears as the villain in issue 1 of the full-length Thrud the Barbarian comic.

Merchandise
A range of Thrud merchandise has been produced since the character's inception, including a Thrud T-shirt and badge as well as a series of miniatures. Citadel Miniatures produced five different metal miniatures of Thrud, starting in 1984 with a "White Dwarf Personality" miniature. Three numbered limited edition miniatures followed consisting of "LE12, Thrud the Barbarian", in 1986, "LE19, Thrud and Female Admirer" in 1987, and "LE104, Thrud scratching head". Thrud was also introduced as a Blood Bowl player and Jervis Johnson commissioned an appropriate miniature. Heresy Miniatures has also produced three Thrud miniatures, including a limited edition "Strolling Thrud" that sold out within three weeks of release. On 29 March 2007, another limited edition of 1000 resin miniatures was released.

Reception and awards
Thrud the Barbarian was one of the best loved pieces in White Dwarf over the five years that the strip ran, being voted "Most popular feature" for three consecutive years during the magazine's golden age. Long-term fans of Thrud were excited and nostalgic to see him return in his own full-length comic, but were concerned that the idea would not stretch to 24 pages. In reviewing issue 1, Jez Higgins, writing on TRS2, and Robert Clark of Strike to Stun, considered the comic a success that was more than one joke spread thin and which was not limited by the single page brevity of the original strip. Steven Maxwell of Bulletproof Comics, however, found that what worked well within the constraints of a single page seemed stretched when spun out over 24. Issue 2 received similarly mixed reviews, with Clark criticising the comic for being much the same, with the same themes and joke as issue 1 while Glenn Carter of Comics Bulletin found it to be well written light reading with quite a few elements of humour. Overall, the comic was deemed a success, with even the more negative reviewers awarding it 6 out of 10 and looking forward to more issues.

Although the writing received mixed reviews, the reception of the artwork was almost entirely positive. Higgins, recalling the heavy blacks and bold outlines of the original strip, found Critchlow's new style to be much more open and expressive. Maxwell also praised Critchlow's development as an artist, judging the comic to be beautifully drawn and coloured with a clear line style. Carter thought that the art was a little flat in places, but nevertheless praised it for being unique with a lot of character.

Critchlow was also commended for the risky decision to write, draw and publish the comic himself. The comic was compared favourably with professional quality comics, with its lack of adverts viewed as an advantage over those offerings. The high production values were also praised, with the glossy cover and high quality paper used for the inner pages.

In 2004, Thrud the Barbarian won the Eagle Award for "Favourite British Small Press Title". In 2006 Thrud was nominated for the "Favourite Colour Comicbook – British" Eagle Award, but lost out to 2000 AD.

Legacy
In October 2002, four months after Thrud issue 1 was published, Critchlow returned to 2000AD using his new computer-drawn style. His first story was the Judge Dredd, Out of the Undercity story written by John Wagner. The new style was initially well received by 2000AD Review and seen as a marked improvement over his previous fully painted style with clearer figures and atmospheric colouring. As the Undercity story developed, however, Critchlow was criticised for using too narrow a palette, with too many greys and blues, although this might have been as a result of the story being set underground.

2000AD Review's criticism of Critchlow's subdued colouring continued with the 2003 Lobster Random story, No Gain, No Pain. By the conclusion, however, Critchlow's style was recognised as being truly unique and even the previously criticised blues and greys were seen to work well when used with other coloured elements. The artwork in two further Lobster Random stories, Tooth & Claw in October 2004 and The Agony & the Ecstasy in April 2006 was again very well received. Tooth & Claw was praised for its character designs while Critchlow's style in The Agony & the Ecstasy was said to be easily recognisable, having "volume, colour and verve".

title: Thrud the Barbarian


text:
William Steele (Lord Chancellor of Ireland)

William Steele (bap. 19 August 1610, Sandbach – 1680) was an English lawyer, judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1654. He was Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Steele was a son of Richard Steele of Sandbach, Cheshire, and his wife Cicely Shaw, and was educated at Caius College, Cambridge.

In 1648 he was chosen to be Recorder of London, and he was one of the four counsel appointed to conduct the case against Charles I in January 1649, but illness prevented him from discharging this duty. However, a few days later he took part in the prosecution of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and other leading Royalists.

Steele was elected MP for the City of London in 1654. He was Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1655, and was made Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1656. After the fall of Richard Cromwell, he was one of the five commissioners appointed in 1659 to govern Ireland. At the end of that year, he returned to England, but he refused to sit on the committee of safety to which he had been named.

At the Restoration he obtained the full benefits of the Act of Indemnity, but he thought it advisable to reside for a time in Holland. However, he returned to England before his death, towards the end of 1680.

Family
William was the nephew of Thomas Steele (died 1643), who was shot for surrendering Beeston Castle in the Civil War. His brother Laurence Steele (bap. 1616) was Clerk of the Irish House of Commons from 1662 to 1697.

He married firstly in 1638 Elizabeth Godfrey of Kent, daughter of Richard Godfrey, MP for New Romney and Mary Moyle. He married secondly in 1662 Mary Mellish, widow of Michael Harvey (a brother of the noted scientist William Harvey). He had issue by both marriages. His daughter, Mary Steele (died 1673), married George Boddington (1646–1719), a director of the Bank of England. His grandson was the writer Richard Steele (1672–1729), the son of the elder Richard Steele, William's only son from his first marriage, and his wife Elinor Symes (née Sheyls). The elder Richard was an attorney who spent much of his life in Ireland: he died in 1676.


text:
Polygyros

Polygyros (Greek: Πολύγυρος) is a town and municipality in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is the capital of Chalkidiki.

Geography
Polygyros town (pop. 7,779 at the 2021 census) is built in the shape of an amphitheatre on a plateau on the south west side of the mountain Cholomontas. It is south of Greek National Road 16 (Thessaloniki - Arnaia). Polygyros is located SE of Thessaloniki, NE of Nea Moudania, NW of Sithonia and SW of Arnaia. The municipal unit (the municipality before 2011) has a population of 11,386 inhabitants (2021) and a land area of 470.933 km2. Other large communities in the municipal unit are Ólynthos (pop. 1,053), Taxiárchis (742), and Vrástama (944).

Climate
Polygyros has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), closely bordering on a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with relatively cold winters and relatively hot summers due to its elevation.

Name
There are different speculations about the origin of Polygyros' name. Some claim that it comes from the combination of poly (much) and geros (strong), because of the healthy climate. Others believe that the words poly and ieros (sacred) have given the present name, because of an ancient temple in the area. Also an old landowner, named Polyaros, offers a possible etymology. According to another possible etymology, the name derives from poly and gyros (round), possible due to the town's amphitheatric position.

Municipality
The municipality Polygyros was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:
 * Anthemountas
 * Ormylia
 * Polygyros
 * Zervochoria

The municipality has an area of 947.417 km2, the municipal unit 470.933 km2. The municipality includes the villages of Vrastama, Taxiarchis, Ormylia, Olynthos, Gerakini and Kalives.

Antiquity
Some situate in the broader area of modern Polygyros the ancient city of Apollonia. Apollonia was one of the 32 cities, which, under the leadership of the Olynthus, constituted the Koinon ton Chalkideon (Chalkidian League). The Koinon was destroyed in 379 BCE by the Spartans, while in 348 BCE Philipp II of Macedon annexed the whole Chalcidice into the Macedonian Kingdom. In 168 BCE Chalcidice was subjected by the Romans.

Byzantine and Ottoman Era
The town of Polygyros is first mentioned in a medieval imperial document, chryssovoulon (with golden stamp), of Eastern Roman Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates about 1080 CE. In 1430, as the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire, Polygyros was conquered by the Ottomans and belonged to the Sanjak of Thessaloniki. On 17 May 1821 the people of Polygyros rose against the Ottoman authority and managed, temporarily, to expel the Ottoman guard. Polygyros, such as other villages of the peninsula, were burned by the Ottomans.

Many residents of Polygyros also took part in the 1854's unsuccessful revolutionary movement against the Ottomans.

Modern Era
Finally, on November 2, 1912 the Greek army, as one of the victors of the First Balkan War, entered Polygyros and incorporated the town in the Greek State.

Culture
Polygyros is famous for its carnival celebrations, which attracts visitors from all over Greece. A nearby location called Panagia (Virgin Mary) is the setting of a famous religious celebration on August 15. Also, cultural societies are active in the fields of folk music and dance. Classic and modern music is cultivated in the municipal conservatory. There is a Folklore Museum in the town, opened in 1998.

Sports
Niki (victory) is the name of Polygyros' football club, which participates in the Greek National Fourth Division Professional League. AOP (Athletic Club of Polygyros) is the local basketball team, participant in the Third National Basketball Division.

Landmarks
The Archaeological Museum of Polygyros has exhibits containing findings from all over Chalkidiki and referring to paleolithic and neolithic age, geometric, archaic, classic, hellenistic and Roman period.
 * Archaeological Museum of Polygyros

People

 * Margaritis Schinas, politician.
 * Christos Zabounis, editor.
 * Fonis Zoglopitis (1930–2015), painter.

title: Polygyros


text:
File:Stanislaw Jan Jablonowski (1634-1702).jpg

Hetman Stanislaw Jan Jablonowski


text: User talk:69.209.179.195

title: User talk:69.209.179.195