A lesson from Pakistan on letting religion dominate politics

[rug]

ABOUT THE WRITER
Faheem Younus is adjunct faculty for religion at the Community College of Baltimore County. Readers may send him email at [e-mail]. He wrote this for the Baltimore Sun.

Posted on Wed, Feb. 29, 2012 07:12 AM
The Baltimore Sun
By FAHEEM YOUNUS
Updated: 2012-02-29T13:12:59Z

Watching Rick Santorum rise in the polls by positioning himself as the real Christian presidential candidate is like watching the sequel of a horror movie - one I literally lived through in the 1980s while growing up in Pakistan. There, another religious zealot, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, played the lead role of the real Muslim.

The plot went like this: The clerics called for candidates with "true" Muslim values, the masses demanded a "Muslim candidate for a Muslim state," the leaders proved their "Muslimness" by quoting scripture and calling others lesser Muslims, and the candidate who was able to appease the clergy privately and please the masses publicly held on to power. The never-ending horror in the name of religion is what followed in Pakistan.

A somewhat similar fusion of church and candidate is apparent in this Republican primary season, where nearly every Republican candidate - except Ron Paul, who would not and Mitt Romney, who could not - has been a rabble-rouser, playing the religion card to rally the conservative Christian base.

Since I have seen a secular country morphing into a theocracy at the hands of a religious fanatic, trust me when I tell you: The aggressive display of theology in our political discourse by the Republican Party in general and Rick Santorum in particular is chipping away at the Jeffersonian wall of separation between church and state.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/29/3458838/a-lesson-from-pakistan-on-letting.html

[lastlib]

1. I once drew up an idea for a billboard....

with a drawing of a church on one side, and a statehouse on the other, with a wall between them; below those, was a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini beside a picture of Josef Stalin. The caption was: "The Wall: it's there for a reason."

Yes, it's there for a reason.

[Kurmudgeon]

2. Yeah, just last week I saw religious in America swarming the streets in protest...NOT.

Bit of a stretch here. However bias blinds, so some won't see it.