The Origin of the Shia - Part Two : Origins of Shiah

» Pinky102 - Origins of Shiah

Karen Armstrong, in her book, The Battle for God, claims that when Isabella and Ferdinan signed the Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews and Muslims to either convert to Roman Catholicism or get out of Spain, big things began to happen as the world moved into a stage of modernization. She writes that Muslims made up a third of the world population in the sixteenth century during which time three new Islamic empires were founded; the Ottoman in Asia Minor, Anatolia, Iraq, Syria, and North Africa; the Safaved in and the Moghul empire in the Indian subcontinent. She says each "... reflected a different facet of Islamic spirituality. The Moghul empire represented the tolerant, universalist philosophical rationalism known as Falsafa; the Sfavid shahs made Shiism, hiterto the faith of an elite mirority, the religion of their state; and the Ottoman Turks, who remained fiercely loyal to Sunni Islam, created a polity based on the Shariah, sacred Muslim law." pp32.

Apparently, reading from her book, Islam enjoyed a period of high culture parallel to the Italian Renesaince. The Ottomans, architecture; the Safavid, painting; and the Mobhuls the Taj Mahal. Another quote from her book states, "Where Christians have come to identify orthodoxy with correct belief, Muslims, like Jews, require orthopraxy**, a uniformity of religious practice, and see belief as a secondary issue. The five 'pillars' require each Muslim to make the Shehadah (a brief declaration of faith in the unity of God and the prophethood of Muhammad), to pray five times daily, to pay a tax (Zakat) to ensure a fair distribution of wealthy in the community, to observe the fast of Ramadan as a reminder of the privations suffered by the poor, and to make the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, if circumstances allow."

** The word, orthopraxy, apparently means proper behavior and actions. I think it means the style in which a person lives out their day to day life.
My comment, as a liberal Christian, is that conservative Christianity is moving over to orthopraxy as a means of expressing their belief--so, more like Muslims and Jews in this sense. Liberals, I suppose would be more rational about life.

What do you think of what Karen Armstrong has to say in the above?

As for your curiosity about the state and religion splitting (here in the West I think you mean), it was because of the tyranny involved in a religious state that demanded obedience regarding belief. I guess that shows one of the main differences between Christianity and the way the Jews and the Muslims join the state and religion through their laws. When the state establishes a particular religion, the leaders of that religion--in effect--become the leaders of the society--the Ayatollahs--and they put their interpretations of the religious laws over the secular laws of the land. The United States is presently going through a period in which we are testing if religious rule will superseced our secual Constitutional laws. This is a tough time for Americans. Especially tough if you happen to be a liberal. Check out some of the threads at the Religion and Spirituality site.

-- posted by Pinky102