China has just banned the burqa in its biggest Muslim city

[DanneSandin]

Samus Aran said:

padib said:

Samus Aran said:

No, a khalif is a religious and worldly leader of a community. 

According to Wiki: "A caliphate (Arabic: خِلافة‎ khilāfa) is a form of Islamic government led by a caliph (Arabic: خَليفة‎ khalīfah  pronunciation (help·info))—a person who claims to be a political and religious successor to the prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim community.^[1]"

I know people often mock wikipedia, but they're correct in this. ;)  

I never said that the killings of ISIS are purely religious in nature. I'm saying that religion and politics go hand in hand in the Middle East.

I don't see how that contradicts what I said. There could be two pretending Khalfs in parallel, you do know that?

A khalif is much more than just a religious leader, even from the very first khalif in history this was already established. Politics and religion are intertwined in Islam. That's a BIG reason why there are so many conflicts there.

In Europe there was always a seperation between state and Christianity (even though Christianity had a lot of political influence until the 20th century). 

Well, in all fairness I DO think there actually was more than one khalif at certain points in history. And contrary to what was first intended, the khalifs formed their own dynasties.

And there hasn't always been a clear cut line between state and church in Europe; tahat's one of the characteristics of the middle ages.