Religion in puberty

Religion passes through childhood and puberty before reaching maturity. Christianity went through its puberty in the Middle Ages with much bloodshed, cruelty and hostility. At that time Christianity was used for political ends, to gain power and to suppress dissent. We must understand that Christianity does not have in its core a political agenda although it becomes involved in politics through Christians who work in this field. Islam now passes through its own age of puberty. This period, naturally, is critical and includes hostility and rejection of The Other. Islam has its own unique circumstances and background that make it essentially different from Christianity when it comes to the understanding of politics. Islam has had from the very beginning ambitious political dreams starting with the Prophet himself. So it is wrong to approach Islam in a sentimental or hostile way. The wise and proper way to approach Islam is to understand its cultural, religious and sociological stories. It is to have the courage to face the difficult issues concerning the hard verses in the Quran and to try to put them first in their cultural context and then apply them to our contemporary culture. Islam defines itself by two programmes which go together and are inseparable. The first one is the spiritual one and the other one is the political one. These work in conjunction and combination with each other. It is imperative for us not to treat Islam as if it is Christianity written in a different way; to do that would be extremely unfair for both faiths. Although these two monotheistic faiths have much common ground, their differences should not be underestimated or ignored. Paying attention to both the similarities and differences is the only way to begin to grasp the situation through which many parts of the world are passing.