Islam’s early fusion of religion and politics was not unique among world religions

Evidence

It is true that Islam came into being as both a political and religious ideology. However, since at least the eighth century there has been a de facto separation of political and religious power. Furthermore, there is nothing unique in Islam’s political potential. When the papacy sought to unite Europe under the banner of Christianity, it unleashed the Crusades in the name of God. When George Bush launched the war on terror, he called it a “Crusade.” More broadly, the United States remains a society where religious rituals are enacted within the state. Elected representatives swear allegiance to the nation on the Bible; a similar mandate to tell the truth in court proceedings has the ritual of placing one’s hand on the Bible or other religious texts, and presidential speeches end with invoking God’s blessings on the American people. However, the existence of religion in state spaces needs to be distinguished from its actual role in various societies at specific historical moments. Not unlike Christianity, Islam transformed itself to adapt to the needs of the societies in which it was practiced. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 316

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The Bush ‘Crusade’ framing and US civil-religion rituals tie into the paper on complaints about immodesty only loosely, but the de-secularizing of the West directly feeds the argument that US empire projects its own religious entanglement onto Islam.
• XREF: connects to: Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294; Classical Islam recognized one religious-political power rather than a church-state division — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1474; Christianity lacked Islam’s founding experience of political triumph — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 232 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294
• Classical Islam recognized one religious-political power rather than a church-state division #corroborates (0.80) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1474
• Religious political ascendance in the late twentieth century was a global, not Muslim-specific, phenomenon #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 314
• Christianity lacked Islam’s founding experience of political triumph #qualifies (0.78) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 232
• Islam was judged deficient for differing from Christian structures #contradicts (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1266
• Early Islam saw no tension between humble prophecy and political conquest #corroborates (0.72)