The Islamic Moses by Mustafa Akyol

Author:Mustafa Akyol
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Conversely, religious coercion would not even be helpful to true religion, because it would not lead to genuine piety. Mendelssohn put it exquisitely:

Religious actions without religious thoughts are mere puppetry, not service of God. They themselves must therefore proceed from the spirit and can neither be purchased by reward nor compelled by punishment.47

From this premise, Mendelssohn went on to argue for separating religion from the state because it was in the very nature of the state to dictate laws and enforce their application, which was fundamentally different from the way religion operates:

The state gives orders and coerces, religion teaches and persuades. The state prescribes laws, religion commandments. The state has physical power and uses it when necessary; the power of religion is love and beneficence.… The state will therefore be content, if need be, with mechanical deeds, with works without spirit, with conformity of action without conformity in thought. Even the man who does not believe in laws must obey them, once they have received official sanction … not so with religion! It knows no act without conviction, no work without spirit, no conformity indeed without conformity in the mind.48

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