Some of philosophical difference - on top of beliefs about God - that Islam has as a religious philosophy, makes "separation of church and state" difficult for a devout Muslim. More so than any other religion, salvation is to be created in your life on earth through the creation of the Muslim community; particularly the world as one Muslim community. You are admonished that such a community is one of your highest prayerful wishes. In as much as the creation of that community is directly part of the human salvation experience, acts that are percieved to be against that community are acts against you personally. Muslims claim to have much in opposition to communism, but the only true opposition is in the reasons for which an all encompassing state authority must be imposed. Both stand in clear opposition to the freedom of the human individual.
Modern Christianity suggests the good community is the result of the pursuit of what is right and good for the individual. Islam and Communism suggest the individual good is a subordinate goal to the primary good of the community. As the last century has shown, both philosophies create pathological communities, because the individual is thrown out, weakened, or destroyed on the alter of the "community" ambition and thus the positive contribution of individuals to that community degenerates over time.
Excellent comment, Wuli. I find that people who spout off about the virtues of "community" are almost always those with a disproportionate will to power. They want everyone to passively "be nice" while they lead them by the nose.
I prefer the virtues of a corporation where the goal is clear, all of the participants are encouraged to do their best, inititative is rewarded.
Also, both are totalitarian systems, where only a small elite at the very top enjoy the "fruits" of the labor of the rest, whom they hold in absolute slavery. e.g. handful of mullahs running Iran, or the Soviet Politburo, Saddam's regime (himself, Uday, Qusay and those uniformed generals sitting around his conference table), Hitler and his SS elite, the Taliban's black turbaned monster elite etc.
Char