Masood N. Khan, MD The title of this article will shock some people to indignation. Yet it is a bitter truth, even though according to a mullah-minded person this could be a blasphemous antithesis. Let me make it more palatable to this sanctimonious ears by a little elaboration. Islam was not to be a religion in the first place. As it is repeatedly made clear by the revealed verses in Quran, it is a system of creation, a 'Deen' as Quran calls it. To reduce it to mere religion was the greatest misconception and, the first big misstep taken towards decline perhaps early on in history. This changed the very course of moral and spiritual journey Islam maps out for human beings. Unfortunately there was no self-correction. On the contrary the religion they changed the Deen into, was left to digress, through frozen interpretations encapsulated into history called traditions, glorification of departed personalities as the idolized relics of the holy past and a hair-splitting system of superfluous rules and regulations called the Fiqh. With this qualifying explanation of the title and an overview of a more elaborate discussion to follow, I hope, a faint line of connection between religion and the decline of Muslims in perhaps discernible. It is indeed a serious situation; perhaps lack of intellectual and moral courage always pushed it under the rug. There is no doubt religion plays a very important role in the conduct and behavior of the people, perhaps more so in Muslims who...