THERE SHOULD BE NO ISLAMIC STATES

The separation between church and state should be a given in every country of planet Earth. In today’s world, the majority of states where religion controls the public domain are Islamic in makeup. Those places have laws and rules about everything: from hygiene to diet to sexual practices to how one should distribute an inheritance upon death. Some of the laws or regulations apply to the “weaker” sex. The role of women in society is limited, and they must show subservience to men.

Many people would probably try to commit suicide, if they had to live under oppressive regimes like that; but even that course of action presents a problem. Suicide is a big sin in Islam. In other words, if you want to kill yourself for your lack of freedoms, they do not want to let you off the hook. They are of the opinion you should not even be free enough to kill yourself. Islam also contains a prohibition against the killing of innocent victims. I guess in the case of Islamic terrorists, there are special dispensations. If that is not so, then why have these murderers not been publicly excommunicated from Islam? I know “excommunication” is a Catholic thing, but you get the idea. Where is the outrage? That is what I want to know.

The main reason there should be no Islamic states and no states where any other religion rules is simple: a government must be representative of all its citizens, not just a select few, not even when they constitute a majority. That is why democracy is the best system of government, because everyone gets the opportunity to participate on equal terms. We may not always place our favorite candidate or party in power, but we get the chance to vote our conscience. Even when we lose, the winner has the duty to represent us to the best of his or her ability. In America, the President is responsible for our welfare whether we are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or have no affiliation.

Just because millions of Muslims inhabit a country, that is not a good reason for making the government an Islamic state. Governments have the duty to represent all those citizens that profess a different religion or no religion at all. Obviously, fair representation is not possible when the government forces the laws of a religion not your own upon you. In addition, we have the right to ask the question, “Have all Muslims chosen their religion freely and with full knowledge of all the options available?” I do not think so, not by a long shot. Like millions who belong to other religions, they accept what their parents pass down to them.

It is a non-choice. As children, they receive religious indoctrination of the repetitive kind (as if they were parrots), not religious instruction of the inquisitive kind (as the human beings they truly are). Consequently, when most Muslims become adults, one of two things happen: either they never question the validity of Islamic teachings (because they have been conditioned to obey not to inquire), or they question them privately but say nothing for fear of ostracism or worse. See Ercian Testament - Part One, chapter 3, “The Psychology of the Chain.”

Only a few valiant individuals choose to reject Islamic authoritarianism. Most of these have had the chance to learn other options. Exposure to democratic ideals and our ways of government usually does the trick, enabling them to overcome the programming inflicted on them as children. Others are not so lucky. Even getting a liberal education as adults is not sufficient to repair the early damage.

Thus, do not show me the figures. Do not tell me how many Muslims there are in the world. That is a gross figure. Tell me how many of them have chosen their religion in freedom. Take away the indoctrination and the coercion, and what do you have left? What are the numbers? For that reason, so that people can be free—and for additional reasons others can mention—there should be no Islamic states.