Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

98 t AN ESSAY IN COMPARISON
munity, at first an apparently civil one, but soon, with the conversion
of the Medinese and the expulsion of first the Jews and then,
at the end, of all non-Muslims from the umma, a community that
was at the same time, and inextricably, religious and political.
Muhammad was, in short, both prophet and statesman, pope and
emperor, during the last ten years of his life. Jesus, in contrast,
showed no interest in politics—“My Kingdom is not of this
world.” For someone to show no interest in politics in first-century
Palestine was no simple matter, and the Gospels seem to go out of
their way to show how Jesus avoided the political traps that his
hostile questioners often set for him. Yet, for all that, Jesus was
executed by a political authority on what appear to be political
charges. “Kingdom,” it is clear, was a term that could cut many
ways in Roman Palestine, some of them dangerous.
If we cannot always come to terms with Jesus’ political views, it
is clear he wielded no political power. Although he was undoubtedly
regarded as a leader by his inner circle of followers—Muhammad
had no “apostles” in the same sense—it is difficult to recognize
in that band of itinerants a society, or even a movement, in
any ordinary sense. In any event, it was effectively ended by Jesus’
death and had to be reconstituted by his followers afterward. Jesus
had no personal role in the shaping of his ekklesia. This was the
work of his heirs, including some, like Paul, who had never even
known him in the flesh. Muhammad, in contrast, was stoutly, convincingly,
and unmistakably in charge of his community from the
beginning of his mission to the end of his life. He led its armies,
collected its taxes, comforted, cajoled, and guided the umma from
the time it had ten members till the day it had ten thousand, and
counting.