Islam has been sometimes blamed as the reason behind slow progress in the Muslim nations. One of the continuing criticisms placed against Islam, it is that it is archaic and not compatible with democracy.
Of course, there is proven constitutional and social evidence that points to the rigidness and the archaistic aspect of the religion once imposed on a political and constitutional level, most notably the apostasy law on which individuals who are Muslim-born are not permitted to defer from the religion and claim another believe or declare their atheism. Also, the religion imbued with cultural beliefs was not capable of eradicating many misogynic practices such as honor killing.
But a recent al-Azhar announcement urged Egypt to form a modern and a non-religious state; it said that “Islam never, throughout its history, experienced such a thing as a religious or a theocratic state