Daniel Pipes on the Anti-Democracy of Sharia Lawbr Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)br In Islam, Allah is the ultimate authority. In democracy, authority ultimately lies with the people. But does this mean that Islam is incompatible with democracy?After all, it was Islamic scholarship that introduced ancient Greek conceptions of democracy to the feudal states of Europe.Despite this, it has been suggested that the differences between Islam (especially when given political form) and the liberal democracies of the West are so great as to represent a 'clash of civilisations'.