An Islamic politics expert said Wednesday promoting democracy in political Islam and throughout the authoritarian regimes of the Muslim world is something that needs to be addressed seriously and systematically.

John Esposito said this is something that has not yet been appropriately emphasized by world leaders.

“No U.S. president has ever seriously promoted democracy in the Muslim world and throughout the Middle East,” he said.

Nearly 400 students and faculty members gathered to hear Esposito’s lecture. Esposito is the founding director and vice-chairman of the center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

The majority of governments of the Muslim world are authoritarian regimes, lead by kings, military and ex-military, Esposito said.

Many people living in these regimes see the need for a serious promotion of democracy and wish to embrace democracy but cannot because of their political situation, he said.

This is especially true with the emergence of political Islam in the 1960s and through the 1980s, sparked from a religious observance which was felt globally.

During the emergence of political Islam, authoritarian regimes did not embrace democracy, but did allow elections. When you crack open a door to democracy, it means even the slightest wind can slam it shut and that is exactly what happened, Esposito said.

“Something important to note here is that these elections saw a 30 percent voter turnout at times,” Esposito said.

This number seems insignificant to the West, but people living in the Muslim world faced hardships and extreme risks for voting, which shows how serious many people were about the promotion of democracy, he said.

Esposito said he owes his job and Lexus to the Ayotallah and the Iranian revolution.

Robert Baum, associate professor of religious studies, said Esposito is one of few real Islamic specialists in the nation. Most of the Islamic specialists and Islamists have been trained in history, or as part of global religions, but Esposito’s main emphasis and core of his expertise is Islam, Baum said.

The lecture, “Islam and Democracy,” in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, was part of Iowa State’s Cultivating Democracy lecture series.