Children often play a game where they sit in a circle. One whispers something to his neighbor, who then whispers that information to the next child, and so on, around the circle. By the time the last child whispers the information to the first, it is totally different from what was originally said.
Something like that seems to have happened within Islam. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, brought one – and only one – religion. Yet today we have perhaps a thousand religions that all claim to be Islam.
Divided by their different interpretations, Muslims do not play the role they once did in the world; instead, they are weakened and victimized. The Shia/Sunni schism is so deep that each side condemns followers of the other as apostates, kafir. The belief that the other’s religion is not Islam, and its followers not Muslim, has underpinned internecine wars in which millions have died – and continue to die.
Children often play a game where they sit in a circle. One whispers something to his neighbor, who then whispers that information to the next child, and so on, around the circle. By the time the last child whispers the information to the first, it is totally different from what was originally said.
Something like that seems to have happened within Islam. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, brought one – and only one – religion. Yet today we have perhaps a thousand religions that all claim to be Islam.
Divided by their different interpretations, Muslims do not play the role they once did in the world; instead, they are weakened and victimized. The Shia/Sunni schism is so deep that each side condemns followers of the other as apostates, kafir. The belief that the other’s religion is not Islam, and its followers not Muslim, has underpinned internecine wars in which millions have died – and continue to die.