>>17780154
>Islam has always been a political and social entity since the very origins of the faith
So has Christianity? It's teachings have very clear political implications, it's only in very recent centuries that a separation between the religious and the political has been drawn, and even then this separation it's kind of a farce, since religious members of society have always influenced the political sphere. There has never been a point in time at which politics was completely irreligious.
>But European cultures are ancient and they always had an identity that extended past the Christian religion.
This is only true of some European countries, at those are the ones that already existed prior to the advent of Christianity such as Greece or Italy, but countries like France, Spain, England, the Netherlands or Portugal did not exist prior to Christianity and their cultural idenity is directly linked to Christianity, that's why there is no such than as French mythology or a Spanish pantheon of gods like there is Greek mythology or a Roman pantheon. Countries like Ireland did have a pre-Christian pagan identity, but that disappeared so long ago and so little remained that its cultural idetity has been Christian for over a millennia, England is one of the first countries that accepted Christianity and it did so in earnest, same with Russia.
My point being is that your argument is only true of SOME European countries, in others their cultural identity is directly tied to Christianity and for others, it's been Christian for so long and they left their pagan past behind so long ago that it's hard to say that they even existed prior to Christianity.
