Islam has practiced de facto separation of religion and politics since the eighth century

Evidence

This section sets out to demonstrate why this is an erroneous reading of the history of Islam. While Islam came into being as both a political and religious ideology, since at least the eighth century it has had 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. Christianity too has been political since at least the fourth century (when Rome adopted Christianity as its official religion), if not since its founding. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 284

Categorization

• XREF: Directly rebuts Huntington and Lewis’s clash-of-civilizations thesis; connects to the reader’s project of dismantling founding myths about Islam. — connects to: Arabs in the 1950s separated private religion from public politics — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 229; Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294; Political Islam’s rise stems from modern politics, not seventh-century Islam — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 313 (+9 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 284

Broader Connections

• Religious claims overstated the unity of religion and politics in Islam #corroborates (0.65) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 294
• Political Islam’s rise stems from modern politics, not seventh-century Islam #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 313
• Dispersed religious authority in Islam prevented church-state clashes #expands (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 296
• Political Islam parallels other modern fundamentalisms rather than stemming from Islam’s essence #corroborates (0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 285