Culture Versus Religion

I have a theory. I believe that Islam treats every indigenous religion as a remnant of an original true monotheistic religion that has degenerated through the course of time. If you take that to be true - then you can treat the local religion as Isra'iliyat material. The scholars distinguish three kinds of the isra'iliyyat:

• Those known to be true because the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad(P) confirms them.
• Those known to be false, because the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad(P) rejects them.
• Those not known to be true or false, and we do not say they are true or false.

These set of rules are applied by hadith scholars when dealing with isra'iliyyat material. These rules are based on the hadith of the Prophet(P) recorded in various hadith collections:Sahi Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 12:
Narrated Abu Huraira:

The people of the Scripture (Jews) used to recite the Torah in Hebrew and they used to explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. On that Allah's Apostle said, "Do not believe the people of the Scripture or disbelieve them, but say:-- "We believe in Allah and what is revealed to us." (2.136)

This way all anti-Islamic parts of the culture are rejected while parts of the local culture/religion can survive as there isnt a definite islamic ruling on it.

This would also explain how an amazing variety of cultures have been asccomodated bu Islam over the centuries.