The real problem, as no western politician will admit, is that Islam has no experience of secularism. I don't mean secularism in the secondary sense used by the National Secular Society, which aims to drive religion out of all public life as it was in the Soviet Union – that's Bolshevism, not secularism – but of a separation of church and state.
From Christ's declaration to give unto Caesar, to St Augustine's separation of the City of God and City of Man, to the 11th century Investiture Controversy, Christianity has long had that separation. Islam has no such history, which is why secular democracy has not flourished in the world of Islam.
Posts
