Many Catholics in the West assume that Islam is simply another Abrahamic religion and therefore shares our ideas about freedom, the individual, and the nature of society. But when you actually study Islam as a political system using the Quran, the Hadith, and the early biographies of Muhammad, you begin to see a structure that looks surprisingly similar to communist collectivism.
The resemblance is not theological. It is political.
I am not speaking about Muslim individuals. I am speaking about Islam as a governing project.
When you compare Islamic sources to the political writings of Karl Marx, three major parallels appear. First, the Caliphate functions as a collectivist authority that controls wealth and property. Second, Islam divides humanity into an insider and outsider hierarchy that determines legal rights and social value. Third, classical Islamic jurisprudence divides the entire world into a realm of peace and a realm of conflict, which creates a permanent ideological mission directed at the outside world.
These are not generalizations. They are derived directly from the original sources of Islam and the foundational writings of communism.
The Caliphate and the Marxist State
In the Communist Manifesto, Marx explains that communism is defined by one central idea, which he describes as the abolition of private property (chapter two). In the Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx explains that wealth is to be collected and redistributed by a central authority. In Marx’s vision, the state functions as the manager of society’s resources, determining what each person receives according to need.
Islam does not abolish private property in a total sense, but the Quran and the classical jurists grant the Caliphate extensive authority over wealth and land. The Quran states that the property of conquered peoples belongs to Allah and his messenger, which means the ruler administers it for the community (59:6 to 7). This includes entire tracts of land, agricultural output, and possessions acquired in conquest.
Taxation in Islamic governance is not incidental. It is an essential component of the political system. Muslims must pay zakat as a mandatory wealth tax. Non-Muslims must pay jizya, and the Quran explicitly commands fighting them until they submit to this tax (9:29). Land taken in conquest is taxed through the kharaj system. War booty, known as ghanimah, is distributed by the ruler to the Muslim community.
The earliest biographies of Muhammad record these actions clearly. Ibn Ishaq describes the confiscation of land from the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir and its redistribution under Muhammad’s authority (Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah). Ibn Hisham preserves the same episodes in his recension. The picture that emerges is a political authority that manages communal resources and redistributes wealth based on religious criteria. In form, if not in ideology, it resembles a collectivist economic system.
Islam’s Hierarchy of Belonging
Communism proclaims universal equality, but in practice, it creates a hierarchy consisting of party faithful at the top and noncommitted citizens below. Islam creates a similarly structured system, although based on religious allegiance rather than political commitment.
Classical Islamic law divides humanity into three legal categories. Muslims receive full membership in the community. Dhimmis are non-Muslims who live under Islamic rule and who must pay the jizya tax while accepting a lower social status. The Quran requires this state of submission explicitly, describing dhimmis as those who pay the tax while feeling themselves subdued (9:29). Those outside Islamic rule are unbelievers, referred to in the Quran and the Hadith as opponents to be confronted unless they enter a treaty or submit to Islamic authority.
The Pact of Umar, a foundational document in Islamic jurisprudence, details the restrictions placed on dhimmis. These include limits on building houses of worship, prohibitions on bearing arms, and constraints on public religious expression. In many classical courts, dhimmis could not testify against Muslims and sometimes could not hold positions of authority over Muslims.
The Hadith also reinforces this hierarchy. Sahih al Bukhari records that Muhammad stated he had been commanded to fight the people until they declare the testimony of faith, which is the Shahada (1:24). The implication is that full membership in the community and full legal protection derive from ideological commitment, not from universal human dignity. This structure is remarkably similar to the Marxist class model, in which insiders receive privileges and outsiders are treated as obstacles to the ideological project.
Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb
Marxism views the world as divided between capitalism and revolutionary socialism. Classical Islam has a comparable division that is even more explicitly defined. Islamic jurisprudence distinguishes between Dar al Islam, which is the House of Islam, and Dar al Harb, which is the House of War. These terms appear throughout the classical legal schools, including the writings of Abu Hanifa, Al Shafii, and Ibn Taymiyyah.
Dar al Islam refers to regions under Islamic governance where sharia (Islamic law) is applied. Dar al Harb refers to regions not under Islamic rule, which are understood to be in a state of potential conflict until peace is established through conversion, submission, or treaty.
The Hadith literature clearly articulates this understanding of the world. As mentioned above, Sahih al Bukhari records that Muhammad said he had been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger. The Sira states that Muhammad sent letters to rulers in surrounding territories instructing them to accept Islam or face consequences, which is recorded in both Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham.
This worldview includes the idea that Muslims in non-Muslim lands may conceal certain practices or beliefs when necessary for protection, which is a concept found in some juristic discussions connected to prudential dissimulation. The strategic nature of this system resembles communist revolutionary tactics, in which adherents live within the opposing system while working to advance the ideology.
Anticipating the Objection: “But Catholicism Did the Same”
A common response to this analysis is the claim that Catholicism, when historically dominant, behaved in similar ways. This objection fails because it confuses historical abuses by Christians with theological requirements of Christianity. Catholicism can be misused politically, but it does not contain a political ideology that mandates coercion, collectivism, or civil hierarchy by divine command.
The New Testament establishes no civil legal code, no mandatory economic system, and no requirement that the Church rule states. Christ explicitly rejects political kingship, declaring, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), and distinguishes divine authority from civil authority (Matt. 22:21). Catholic political arrangements therefore arise from prudential judgment and natural law reasoning, not from revealed law that must be imposed.
Unlike Islam or communism, Catholicism does not require forced ideological conformity. The Church teaches that faith must be free and cannot be coerced (CCC 160). There is no Catholic equivalent to religious taxation, legal subjugation of unbelievers, or a divinely mandated division of the world into realms of peace and war.
Where Catholic societies historically violated these principles, they acted against the gospel, not in obedience to it. Islam and communism, by contrast, integrate belief, law, and political authority into a single ideological system by design. Catholicism does not.
When Catholics examine Islam not only as a belief system, but as a political and legal project, they discover a structure that resembles collectivist ideology in key ways.
Communism is atheistic, whereas Islam is religious, but the political shape of both systems places the collective above the individual and divides humanity into ideological categories. Christianity stands apart from both systems because it affirms the inherent dignity of each person created in the image of God.
Understanding these distinctions is essential for Catholic evangelization and for realistic engagement with Islamic political theology. Clarity serves charity. If we want to proclaim the gospel effectively, we must understand the political worldviews with which Christianity interacts.