ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, I contended that Muhammad introduced religious principle and the leaven of mercy into politics and thus cleansed it of its Machiavellian ruthlessness. Machiavelli cared only for pragmatism in politics, rejecting Christian political norms as juvenile, idealistic and perfectionist. We must stop hankering for a virtuous utopia, he argued, and accept that we are politically imperfect and ‘imperfectible’.
