Religion and Union

It has been proven time and time again that religion has the power to unify and bring people together under one common belief, but it also has the power to disperse, separate, and discriminate. While many like to think religion can be a completely separate issue from politics, I think so otherwise. You see, religion unifies but also separates people, religion cannot exist without followers and religion needs leaders. Leaders are those who followers follow, if the followers are unsatisfied with leader, the leader must be changed. In other words, politics occur. When politics occur, it is very uncommon for people to all be in the same team, unless the leader is astonishingly great at leading and keeps followers content.

In Islam, Muhammad was the initial leader. He was a natural at inspiring followers, and was good at resolving problems between people. Islam prospered and grew. Islam became successful and united during his time. After Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E., the tightly knit Islamic society began to crumble. Conflicts concerning power, right of interpretations of the Islamic beliefs, and correct versus incorrect views on the role of Islam in society, arose.

In a reading for this week, I learned about the Sunni and Shia Muslims. You see, Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith, what they differ on are the political aspects. Over the centuries, these political differences have separated and created a number of varying practices and positions that have now come to carry a level of spiritual significance.

It is clear that the division between the Islamic sub-groups is connected to leadership and right. As mentioned, it was not until after Muhammad's death that these conflicts and groups began to appear. The question that the groups differed opinions on was as to who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. The Sunni Muslims agreed that the position should be taken by someone close to Muhammad, a close friend of his, someone capable of doing the job, and this is what happened. The first Caliph of the Islamic nation was a close friend of Muhammad. But some disagreed with this. The Shia Muslims believed that leadership should have stayed within Muhammad's bloodline, those specially appointed by the Prophet, or Imams appointed by God.

This political aspect of leadership lead to disputes, conflicts, and separation of two groups once very close in beliefs. This conflict has lead to violence such as civil wars between Muslim groups and the obvious separation of the overall faith of Islam, through the creation of new empires and new ways of worship. I think that Religion is largely affected by Politics, as proven here, but why does it have to be? What religions have avoided this immersion?