Ruhollah Khomeini Quotes

Theological & Legal Expert. The Sunnah, like the Koran, has statements of the Prophet, Mohammad. A fatwa is a religious legal ruling. This particular Fatwa shows the great difference between the Islamic State and a Republic or Democracy. In the latter forms, any religious practices must be consistent with the Constitution. Even though blasphemy might be prohibited by a religion, the United States Constitution for example protects anyone’s right to be blasphemous. In the Islamic system any constitution or law is subservient to and must be consistent with, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. In that sense, unless the Muslim populated nation is secular like Turkey, then the governments are partial or total theocracies.

This is a very important point as most Muslims believe that the actual wording of the Sharia—Islamic Law—comes from the Prophet directly and are not the words of various legal scholars which is just what they are. Needless to say, there are many differences and even contradictions depending on time and the particular scholar. Islam however has no authority that religiously is higher than any other. In that respect, it is like Judaism. There is not a recognized religious hierarchy as there is in Christian churches.

The letter had been written earlier, but this and 51 other letters written when she was in Turkey were published in 1763. At the time, Turkey, the seat of the Ottoman Empire, was an Islamic state operating under Islamic law, as were all countries within the Ottoman Empire. Today, Turkey is a secular state and the clergy and the legal profession are separate.

Gabriel exaggerates in the sense that while the quotation is correct for many Muslims, it is by no means true of all. Iran for example is an Islamic theocracy, but Turkey is a 99 percent Muslim nation which is totally secular and in some ways is much more restrictive of Islamic teaching and practice than most secular democracies. The fundamentalist Muslim view of the state and religion is essentially the same as the ultra orthodox Jews and Christians. It is true that a greater proportion of Muslims believe in the merging of civil and religious law than Jews and Christians, but by no means all. The non Arab Muslims are much less likely to see the unity of state and religion.

A fatwa is a religious legal ruling.

Fundamentalist Christians and Jews believe that the Bible is the revealed word of God. In Islam, not only is the same position taken, but it is specifically forbidden to even think about or have a personal opinion about a matter which appears in the Koran—decided by Allah and revealed to the Prophet Muhammed.

All modern legal systems conflict in some respects with a literal interpretation of the Koran which is the basis for the traditionalists view of Sharia—Islamic law. Therefore a student of modern law is learning things which go against Sharia as interpreted by fundamentalists. There was a time when Jewish and Christian American religious families were uncomfortable with studding modern law as there were contradictions with Biblical law. There are still a few.

This verse has been one of the bases of Muslim theocratic states like Iran’s claim to legitimacy.

Joseph ben Matthias. The term was coined by Josephus to refer to the fundamentalist, orthodox Jewish view of a proper state, as opposed to a secular government. The Jewish fundamentalist dream of a theocracy came down through modern times. There were ultra-orthodox Jewish groups who opposed the creation of the State of Israel on the grounds that it is not a theocracy and there are some who still want to see Israel transformed. The term became generalized and is applied to any state where the religion is the state and religious leaders dominate and control the state. The ultra orthodox Muslims, as in Iran, are generally the only religious group who have created theocracies or semi-theocracies as Islamic states. See {638106} for the context in which the term was first used.

A terrorist organization

This quotation illustrates one interesting difference between Muslim fundamentalists and the Jewish and Christian fundamentalists. All three insist that whenever the world of God has appeared in holy scripture, it must be followed and not be eroded by time and modernity. However, the Islamic fundamentalists also believe that no other laws, regulations or norms are needed to cope with change and modernity while the fundamentalist Christians and Jews do allow for additional legislation to govern areas on which holy scripture is silent.

This is not terribly different however from Christians and Jews selectively quoting the Bible.

This is one of the early calls for a partition of India which was to be so disastrous after the Second World War. The “free Muslim state of states” turned out to be Pakistan where they have been fighting amongst themselves about how much Sharia would prevail.