Many Monotheisms

(The Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar - at least that is what it looks like.)

Logically, there should be many groups of polytheists but only one group of monotheists, right? Well, no. Even when agreed on a unitary principle, people always find plenty to disagree about. In SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003), a Muslim ignorantly describes a Sikh, in his presence, as "'...this Hindu idol worshiper.'" (Chapter Six, p. 92)

The first step toward mutual comprehension and respect is to describe another man's beliefs in terms acceptable to him. Thus, we do not call Muslims "Mohammedans," although the phrase, "Mohammedan fanatic," is inscribed in stone, under a memorial to a British soldier killed by a..., in Canterbury Cathedral.

"The Sikh growled; his faith was an offshoot of the Hindu stock, but ostentatiously monotheistic." (ibid.)

I would go further and say that Sikhism is a Hindu-Muslim synthesis. Its scripture, the Granth, is a collection of hymns written by Hindus, Muslims and Sikh Gurus. And, of course, it is a pure monotheism, in no way idolatrous.

In Imperial service during Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, we see Jerusalem Catholics and a Muslim, a Jew and a Sikh. The Empire also encounters mutually incompatible alien monotheisms among Ythrians and Merseians.