Hi Bill,

Quote Originally Posted by BillClewis2 View Post
There are no historinc/cultural equivalents within Islam to the Reformation or Enlightenment, especially with regard to true toleration of minority religions (see dhimmitude...). Equating the basis or end product of Western intellectual or social growth to Islamic permutations is a non-starter.
First, while you are correct that there are no equivalents, there are analogs. If you actually examine the Reformation period closely, you will notice that it was composed of a whole slew of social-religious movements operating outside of the Catholic Church. Many of these were quite similar to modern day al Queada, such as the Fraticelli, while others were more rooted in popular unrest (e.g. such as der Deutsche Bauernkrieg and Hizbolla).

As far as tolerance of minority religions is concerned, consider the provisions of the Peace of Augsburg and the specific provisions of the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio - they only applied to Catholics and Lutherans; a situation that is quite analogous to the various agreements between Sh'ia and Sunni. If you want to talk about Dhimmitude, consider how the Holy Roman Emperors dealt with the Jewish population of Prague, how the American government dealt with the Mormons in the 1850'-80's, or how the Texas court system deals with custody issues amongst neo-pagan witches today.

Marc