Differentiating Religion from Problem and Religious Problems from Each Other: Before and Today
Authors: Sota Jani 
Published: April 2024

This study aims to understand and interpret the process of turning religion into a problem. Expressed differently, religious problems in the context of globalization will be the object of historical analysis regarding their meaning and interpretation. Although this analysis can be done in a separate way of treatment, perhaps as a preparation for such a study, efforts will be made to take over some initiatives previously carried out in this field, the issue is treated from the historical perspective: before and today. At the same time, it is very important to show that terms such as Christianity and Islam, seen from the point of view of their proponents, are used in connection with the process of turning religion into a problem. The process of turning Christianity into a problem is named by historians and sociologists as the process of secularization, which is described as removing temporal (material) religions from their ruling domains to make them independent and humanitarian. Finally, turning religion into a problem and secularization are two separate expressions of the same phenomenon. If there is secularization anywhere, religion has become a problem; if somewhere religion has become a problem, this is a sign of secularism. Meanwhile, in the Islamic world, secularism was previously carried out by a process that preceded secularism, thus turning Islam into a problem. The name of this problem is colonialism. Expressed differently, in the Islamic world, both secularization and the transformation of Islam into a subordinate problem because of secularism are the results of colonialism. The spread and expansion of secularism in the Islamic world came about as a natural result of the spread and expansion of colonialism. Among its historical conditions, the classical period, even though it is a specificity that at first glance does not seem very important - when compared to the colonial conditions that have to differentiate specifics of our subject, the importance comes to the fore clearly - is the fact that political authority has been in the hands of Muslims and that, therefore, social organization has been realized in its authentic terms. Therefore, two specifics, historical conditions and human nature have been, firstly, the tool and secondly, as an external visual form of being, and all issues and solutions to situations have been realized in such authentic conditions. At this point, Islam, and Christianity, stripping themselves of traditions, were oriented to recall purely and, in this context, a new attitude began to develop, such as the understanding and reinterpretation of the fundamental religious texts, about which these beliefs were discussed. In this study, we are dealing with an innovation regarding the meaning and interpretation of religious texts, indirectly expressed by differentiating religion from believers. There is one thing that cannot be discussed, it is the process of turning religion into a problem and religious problems from each other. Furthermore, in this study, we will be careful not to openly criticize one of the descriptive and comparative methods used by world historiography. On the one hand, the methods are directly related to their issues, in a sense, the issues predetermine the way of handling them. From this point of view, criticizing the method without criticizing the issue would be unfair. On the other hand, there is no need for a critic with an understanding of the method treated within the connection with its issues, related to its application in another important issue from it. To sum up, the criticism is present within the description of the treated method related to the particularities of the case. In my opinion, the sufficient expression of an idea makes a separate criticism unnecessary since it also carries its criticism, from the point of view of emphasizing the changes in a world that is becoming more and more globalized.

Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024