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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/opinion/the-caliphate-fantasy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
The Caliphate Fantasy
(New York Times) Khaled Diab - The Islamic State has proclaimed the restoration of the caliphate. But the problem with this new caliphate is that it is ahistorical. The Abbasid caliphate, for example, which ruled from 750 to 1258, was centuries ahead of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's backward-looking cohorts. Abbasid society thrived on multiculturalism, science, innovation, learning and culture - in sharp contrast to ISIS' violent puritanism. Even the early caliphates of Muhammad and his first "successors" bear little resemblance to jihadist mythology. Muhammad composed a strikingly secular document in the Constitution of Medina. It stipulated that Muslims, Jews, Christians and even pagans had equal political and cultural rights - a far cry from ISIS' punitive attitude toward even fellow Sunnis who do not practice its brand of Islam.