By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Nothing is ever the same as it was, but to compare Islam’s ongoing internal struggles with the Christian Reformation may foster understanding and apreciation. So, for example, when Ahmadinajad spoke recently, he did not speak to the West, he spoke to believers, to Islamic people everywhere.

He spoke as Shiite, to fellow Shiites and to Sunnis as well.

The competition for supremacy in the Islamic world outweighs what the West sees as a personal threat, what Israel sees as directly threatening their national survival. Granted, we must attend to our security, because no one else will. Of course, Israel must protect its people and land above all else. So what good is using a historical analogy?

The Reformation analogy is merely a point of departure here. The big idea is that Islam has an internal revolution tearing it apart perhaps but eventually leading somewhere, making it a volatile faith for believers, and not separated from what we term politics or economic development. For example, Iran’s politics appear blended with faith.

In the West, we often make lists of issues. We enjoy lists in every day life. But for believers in Islam, the issues that we list vertically, are horizontally linked in their minds. A list suddenly becomes a mosaic of interconnected people, places, and faiths.

Consider how the holy cities of Mecca, Jerusalem, and Medina figure in this mosaic. Consider in Islam, who administers the two holy cities for the Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam. Consider the differing rituals of Shiite and Sunni, while you think upon the differences in ritual of Methodists and Roman Catholics, and the various faith rituals for Jews.

Consider how the Reformation bounded across the borders of nation-states, threatened kingdoms, divided…and how some conquered and how so many died. No analogy is a match. But an analogy can illuminate today, by connecting it with yesterday.

We view time in different ways. George Marshall viewed time “…as a stream”…events with continuity, consequences, and most important, embedded in the minds of people.

And while some call the Reformation a historical event…in my mind it’s ongoing. Non-Christians may agree.