Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Religion and Democracy

Juan Cole has been one of my favorite stops on the Web for news and analysis on the Iraq War for a while now.

Today, he posted an item that is a timely observation in light of the Ten Commandments monument issue being in the news again, with the Supreme Court's decision to let stand the Appeal Court ruling against the monument's display. It also adds an informed view to the differences between Christianity and Islam on the issue of government and religion:

<< The announcement that the new draft Afghanistan constitution recognizes Islam as the religion of the state has provoked a great deal of discussion in the West. But lots of Western countries have a state religion. The UK does, in the form of Anglicanism, and the British monarch is the "defender of the Faith." The US and France have constitutions that separate religion and state, but most countries are not that clear about the issue. Even in Italy there has recently been a public dispute about whether state schools may display crucifixes, and most Italians seem to think they should be able to. Indeed, many legislators wanted to put in the constitution of the new European Union that Europe had a primarily Christian heritage. In Poland the Catholic church was given the right to vet television channel licenses. In Greece, Greek Orthodox priests get to decide if Muslims may build a new mosque, and it is illegal for anyone but Orthodox priests to proselytize. We could bring up Ireland, Bolivia, etc., etc. Westerners are not as secular in law as they think they are. >>

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