Criticism of Islamism - Unification of Religion and State

Unification of Religion and State

One of the most commonly quoted slogans in the movement is that of the Muslim Brotherhood: `al-islam dinun was dawlatun` (Islam is a religion and a state). But, as one critic complains, the slogan "is neither a verse of the Qur'an nor a quote from a hadith but a 19th century political slogan popularised by the Salafi movement that emerged in opposition to Western influence in Egypt" —a 19th century political origin being no problem for many other ideologies, but a severe handicap for a belief system predicated on following the scripture revealed, and the ways of those who lived, twelve centuries earlier.