Re: Non-Desi View on Ummah post 9/11
I am sort of confused about the concept of the ummah. To my understanding, the idea of the ummah is that all Muslims belong to a single community. My own perception of Islam is that it can much more readily be compared to christianity than it can be compared to Catholicism. By that I mean that Christianity is like a tree with many different branches. Catholicism is not a tree in and of itself but it is rather a branch of the tree of Christianity. The differences between, Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Christian Scientists, Mormons, and Anglicans means that each of these derivations of Christianity would have its own community. It would not be a very effective or close knit community if you tried to create only a single community encompassing them all.
Islam, to my perception, supports many different branches as well. (Shias, Sunnis, Wahhabis, and what not). It's hard to ignore the differences and force all branches into one unified community.
Further, my perception is that the ummah concept also starts from a proposition that Islam is a way of life as much as it is a religion. Because of that, the ummah is not just viewed as a spiritual community. The answers to both religious and what most non-Muslims would view as secular questions derive from the community/ummah. I think its impractical and unrealistic to have a single community ministering in this sense to over 1.5 billion people living all over the world.
The Pope can minister to the spiritual needs of his huge flock. But the political, legal, social, educational, and domestic challenges for Poland, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and Argentina (all over 90% Catholic) are quite different one from the other. These countries could only be a single community in the broader sense if one were to appeal and focus upon the least common denominator.
So too are the issues and problems facing Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Iraq, the Gulf States, etc. different by virtue of geography, natural resources, population, geopolitics, etc.