Islam Islam and Political control and fragmentation

[mindlight]

One of the central ideas of Islam has always been unity and the dream of a global caliphate. Muhammad and the First Caliphs devoted a considerable amount of effort to eliminating dissent from Islamic control and crushing rebellions. But very early on there was fragmentation between Sunnis and Shias and Islam has been a force for fragmentation the world over. In the early Caliphates this practice of fragmentation was obscured by the sheer brute force power of the early Muslim empires such as the Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate. But since these the Muslim world has never been reunited. The Ottoman and Indian Mughal Empires bucked the trend of this fragmentation only on a local level

So the thesis of this thread is that Islam requires control of government structures in order to survive and that to preserve itself against superior force it fragments empires to create Islamic states. Where it has lost control e.g. Spain, the Balkans, Large parts of Russia, Israel and India people have stopped believing in Islam. So it seems this control is central to the survival of Islam (unlike Christianity) and it cannot survive without it.

The examples of this in history are:

1) Mongol Empire, When a Khan became a Muslim the Empire broke and the Muslim states of Central Asia split off from it in defence against the superior power of the Mongol heartlands and Yuan dynasty China.
2) The dissolution of the USSR led to the emergence of Islamic Republics of Central Asia. The war in Chechnya attempted to do the same.
3) The end of the British Raj led to the formation of Pakistan and ultimately Bangladesh
4) The current independence campaign in Sichuan province China

 

[Yytz6]

The topic under debate is ?