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Rise Of Islam Research Paper

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The utilization of religion as a political tool to persecute individuals is a problem consistently faced in history. Placing religion and politics in one category, leads to problems such as confusion of authority, divination of rulers and political warfare. These problems can be seen in certain political religions such as Islam. In the Islamic religion, there is no official voice of Islam. This is partly due to the fact that the history of Islam is a history of ever changing claims to religious authority. Meaning that multiple figures and institutions become the authoritative leaders that delegate which principles of Islam become ever-present in their ruling period. For instance, Osama bin Laden was an authoritative leader that utilized …show more content…

The original Islamic sources, the Quran and the Hadith, had very little information about the formation of government. Therefore, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims were left to improvise and form a governmental structure. This structure was based on a hierarchy system that delegated more power to the caliphate. In other words, the Islamic State was ruled by a series of caliphs based on the divination of power from the Muhammad lineage, which allowed each successor to be chosen by the previous ruler. This system of structure greatly benefited the Muslim community who received economic and political rewards, such as, guaranteed financial incomes and military/administration positions. Non-Muslims, who remained from conquered lands, were not treated so justly. The Islamic State placed a poll tax (jizya) on Non-Muslims which lent benefits to the Muslim community. Having a ruler placed into power by divination, such as in the case of the Islamic State, leads to general persecution and exploitation of the people who do not follow the religious beliefs of the ruler. This is seen with the Non-Muslims, who were exploited to provide benefits to the Muslim community. Therefore, the problem with divination of power in a political religion is that the voice of the religious is commonly expressed while those who have opposing ideals are subjected to

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