Islam never separated religion from the state as Christianity did

Evidence

It is by now a truism that in Islam there is no distinction between church and state. In Christendom the existence of two authorities goes back to the founder of Christianity, who enjoined his followers to render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. There are two powers: God and Caesar. They may be associated, they may be separated; they may be in harmony, they may be in conflict; one or the other may dominate; one may interfere, the other may protest, as we have recently been reminded. But always there are two; God and Caesar, Church and state. In classical Islam, that is to say in pre- Westernized Islam, there is no such distinction. There were not two powers but one, and the question of separation did not therefore arise. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1474 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Lewis and Huntington originated the thesis that Islam never separated religion from politics — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 326; Islam never separated religion from other compartments of life; Islam traditionally makes no compartmental separation between religion and other life domains (+4 more)

Broader Connections