Provide a 5 pages analysis while answering the following question: Islam and Secularism Are not Compatible. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide

Provide a 5 pages analysis while answering the following question: Islam and Secularism Are not Compatible. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required.

The doctrine of secularism is illustrative of scientific development, industrial revolution, and the formation of a liberal democratic state, which is a stark contrast to the principles of Islam, where pseudo-secularism has been known to obliterate the society, for instance, the Arab experience, and according to Tamimi and Esposito (2000) has “rendered it an easy prey to a corrupt elite that very much resembles the Mafia in Italy or the white minority in the defunct apartheid regime of South Africa.

This view has been propagated and voiced by several Muslims across the globe that secularism is indeed incompatible with Islam, and hence religion and politics must not be merged. However, in the twenty-first century, these beliefs have been confronted with differing opinions, especially with the emergence of moderate Islam, who readily accept modernization of the religion and express the desire to deviate from the fundamentalist perspectives who completely reject the idea of secularism, and in fact perceive secularism as “anti-Islamic” in nature, and those who favor secularism are viewed as revolting against the religion and hence God.

This is because, orthodox Muslims believe that secularism is atheistic in nature, and since atheism holds no place in Islam, secularism is viewed as anti-Muslim. Another significant difference between the two ideologies – i.e. Secularism and Islam are that, where Islam vehemently propagates the idea of life hereafter, secularism, in turn, stresses on only those matters which pertain to this world. Furthermore, Islam is largely viewed as incompatible with secularism since a secular state is governed by independent laws, which are devoid of any religious connotations, which are unacceptable to Islam, as they are considered to harbor anti-Islamic ideologies.

Besides, it is widely believed in the Islamist nations that religion and politics cannot be merged and hence reject secularization of their states on religious grounds (Abu-Rabi, 2006).