Theocracy_update.qxd

Muslims participate in Friday prayers at a mosque in Isfahan, Iran. Since 1979, a council of Islamic religious leaders has ruled Iran, making it one of the world’s few theocracies today.

wasn’t physically present among the people. Moses led the Jewish people, but only as God’s representative. In the Bible account, Moses communicates directly with God. He relays God’s instructions (as, for example, when he carries down from Mount Sinai the stone tablets on which God has inscribed the Ten Commandments). In Islam, Muhammad ibn Abdullah plays a similar role as God’s intermediary. Muhammad was a merchant in Mecca, a city on the Arabian Peninsula. Beginning in 610 CE , he report- ed a series of divine revelations. In those revelations, the angel

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Theocracy: Religious Government