One reply on “Question I’m Thinking About For Today”

  1. A very interesting question. Upon reflection, I was reminded of a story that I heard from Islamic history in an undergrad humanities class. The third Islamic caliph, Usman, was elected democratically by vote to be the head of the Muslim ummah (lexically translated to English as community, but can also mean, more abstractly, the global Muslim community) by the elites of the community in 644 CE. I’m assuming that these so-called elites were like modern day MPs, or something like that-those people who were actively involved in political and community affairs. The story that I heard was that Usman was not voted in because he would be a competant spiritual or political figure head, but because he could be easily manipulated by these so-called elites. These voters elected him under the pretense that he would be the best leader to deal with all community issues, but were really after their own collective power-they weren’t genuinely interested in the religious or spiritual well-being of the community.

    This story makes me wonder, if I were to somehow reverse your question: can a democratic state be religious?

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