Originally posted by scherzo
Islam is just a religion. Islam is perhaps more compatible with true democracy than Christianity because one of the five pillars of faith is zakat, or welfare tax. In Muslim countries this tax is legalized, similar to income tax or property tax in the US. This tax ensures a more stable democratic system by helping the poor up. Christianity, although it stresses helping fellow men, has no such necessity for belief.
in Pakistan, every year, you will see hordes of people queuing up to take their money from the banks before the government can impose zakat, and I am not sure if Zakat is binding on Shia. I cannot say what happens in America, having never been there nor ever entertained the desire to go, but in Europe, we have some of the most generous welfare systems on earth, Sweden is an excellent example, as is the U.K. You are perhaps a little ignorant of Christianity, which is understandable, for so are so many 'Christians', however, for there is indeed a necessity on Christians to help others, infact, without this action, there faith is futile, and unlike Islam which is based on laws, and thus provides, in my opinion, little or no room for the exercise of the faculty of the human conscience, this must come from the heart, not because of a decree or annual observance, thus we read in the Anjil, '
Of what benefit is it, my brothers, if a certain one says he has faith but he does not have works? That faith cannot save him, can it? If a brother or a sister is in a naked state and lacking the food sufficient for the day, yet a certain one of you says to them: “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,” but you do not give them the necessities for their body, of what benefit is it? Thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.