The True Issue of Religion: Is it of the Empire or for Humanity?

The fundamental issue within Islam over the centuries since its establishment parallels that within Christianity and Judaism. In one version of belief, humanity is ruled through irrational fear and hatred, which is historically epitomized by a pantheon of irrational and arbitrary power in the hands of an oligarchy that maintains itself by keeping a population in deliberate backward subservience. The other pole is represented by the principle that the individual is potentially an invaluable asset for the ongoing progress of society's mission to uplift its standard of living and provide solutions to urgent threats and bequeath to future generations the benefits of science and the arts. The European Renaissance would not have been possible without the work of great scholars from the Islamic world like Ibn Sina who themselves revived the Platonic method of ancient Greece. And without that influence we would have no principle of a democratic constitutional republic.