This paper intends to demonstrate three objectives: 1) Fukuyama’s theory of the triumph of liberal democracy is cross culturally plausible at the attitudinal level. 2) Fukuyama’s claim that Islam is resistant to modernity (characterised by liberal democracy and capitalism) does not hold up to empirical testing. That is, using Islam as explanatory variable of democracy/authoritarianism is largely uncorroborated. 3) Explore alternative explanations to the absence of democracy in most of Middle Eastern countries. The paper concludes by emphasising the importance of Human Development and Political Opportunity Structure to the explanation of democracy/authoritarianism. The main conclusion of the paper is that ‘Islam’ is largely irrelevant as an explanatory variable to authoritarianism/democracy.