Page 434 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

The wisdom here is not at all hard to understand: Although all
Divine faiths share the same monotheistic belief and are built on the
same foundations, they have their own ways of worshiping and
have their own commandments. Therefore, there is a very high prob-
ability that a Muslim under the administration of a Jew or a Chris-
tian will experience difficulties in terms of worship and practices.

That is the reason for the commandment in this verse.

However, another important point needs to be clarified: This
verse applies to places where Muslims are the majority. People from
all sorts of beliefs take part and should take part in the administra-
tions of Muslim countries. For instance, in the Ottoman Empire,
many Christians and Jews served as the grand vizier (akin to today’s
Prime Minister), while the Ottoman army was placed under the

command of Armenian pashas many times. However, the
verse explains that in a Muslim-majority society, legisla-
tion and law enforcement should not be given solely to
a person with a different faith and the entirety of the

Muslim population should not be entrusted to
that one single person. This is in fact a peace-
ful and necessary measure to maintain the
society's faith and orderliness. Neverthe-
less, if a Muslim is living in a society
made up mostly of Christians, Jews

or people of other beliefs, they
should certainly respect the
administration and laws of that
country, be loyal to the state of
the land he lives in and pay its

citizenship duties just like
everyone else.

432