Muslim Scholar: No Separation of Church and State in Islam

BREITBART.COM: A prominent American Muslim scholar has argued that differences between Islam and other faiths run deeper than most suspect, and extend even to the question of separation of church and state.

Writing in Friday’s LA Times, Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World, states that Western suppositions that all religions are basically the same and want the same things is fundamentally wrong.

These differences, Hamid contends, run all the way from views of the sacred text (Muslims believe that every single word of the Qur’an comes directly from Allah) to an understanding of the nature of the state and its relationship to religion.

Hamid declares that the difference between Christianity and Islam regarding the state stem from the differences in each faith’s central figure. Whereas Jesus preached giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, Muhammad united faith and the state in his own person.

“Unlike Jesus,” Hamid states, “Muhammad was both prophet and politician. And more than just any politician, he was a state-builder as well as a head of state. Not only were the religious and political functions intertwined in the person of Muhammad, they were meant to be intertwined.”

“To argue for the separation of religion from politics, then, is to argue against the model of the very man Muslims most admire and seek to emulate,” Hamid argues. » | Thomas D. Williams PhD | Saturday, September 10, 2016

US Election 2012: Rick Santorum Says JFK Makes Him Sick

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Rick Santorum, the ultraconservative presidential hopeful, has intensified his Christian rhetoric as he rejected John F Kennedy's promise to maintain an absolute separation between church and state as an idea that "makes me throw up."

The appeal to the party's Christian base – dismissing the famous 1960 campaign speech by President Kennedy to keep his Catholic faith out of politics – represents a further lurch to the right in the acrimonious battle to find a Republican candidate to face Barack Obama in November.

"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," said Mr Santorum, an evangelical Catholic who would become the second Catholic to win the White House after President Kennedy.

"The first substantive line in the [Kennedy] speech says, 'I believe in America where the separation of church and state is absolute," the former Pennsylvania senator told ABC News, "You bet that makes you throw up." » | Peter Foster, Jon Swaine in Washington | Monday, February 27, 2012


This guy is a throwback – a throwback from a bygone era. If he becomes the nominee, he doesn’t have a chance against Obama. He’s going to alienate the gays, the feminists, and all the moderate voices in the US. If the concept of the separation of Church and State make him want to “throw up”, it begs the following question: Which kind of state do you wish to see in the US, Mr. Santorum? A theocracy, per chance? – © Mark

Keep Religion Out of Public Policy
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES: I would not want to live under Sharia law in America, a real threat only in the eyes of America’s lunatic fringe. I also would not want to live under Roman Catholic Canon Law, which is becoming an increasing threat.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of religion. What Jefferson referred to as the “wall of separation between church and state” is intended to protect the practice of religion from interference by the state, as well as to protect citizens from religious interference. Some conservatives today are misinterpreting that principle as providing freedom for the Catholic Church and evangelical Christians to impose their religious teachings on America’s secular society.

What qualifies the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church to determine what should be covered in our health insurance policies? All sacred religious institutions are explicitly and appropriately exempted from the provisions of the health care policy under debate. However, so-called “Catholic Charities” is an organization two-thirds of whose “good works” are funded by tax dollars. Catholic hospitals and colleges are also largely supported by public money. Should all their employees be denied access to comprehensive health care coverage because of that church’s religious doctrine? » | Rev. David Weissbard | Sunday, February 26, 2012

Labour MPs Back Separation of State and Church of England
THE TELEGRAPH: Ministers are coming under growing pressure from Labour MPs to disestablish the Church of England.

A growing chorus of voices is calling for the centuries-old link between Church and state to be broken after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, ignited the issue last week by saying that it was “by no means the end of the world if the Establishment disappears”.

Three former ministers openly backed the idea of a separation, with one claiming that the majority of backbenchers would vote to end the special position the Church has enjoyed since the Reformation.

The calls prompted the Conservatives to accuse Labour of trying to dismantle the Church’s position by stealth. They demanded that the Government “comes clean” about a report being drawn up in Downing Street on ways to reform a key element of the established Church, the 1701 Act of Settlement, which bars a Catholic from ascending to the throne. >>> By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor | Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Mufti of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, Wants Moratorium on the 1905 French Law Separating Church and State
BRUSSELS JOURNAL: The mufti of the Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, has dropped what amounts to a political and religious bomb. He proposes a moratorium on the French law of 1905 separating Church and State, because not enough mosques are being built in France.

Besides his position as mufti, he is the president of the CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith), an association officially established in 2003 thanks to the efforts of Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy.


Questioned by Le Monde, Mr. Boubakeur set forth the idea of a “moratorium of 10 to 20 years” on the 1905 law, which forbids all public funding of places of worship, so that Islam can “catch up” on its needs. “The associations that administer houses of worship need to be given air to breathe,” he says.

This has to be one of the most daring statements made yet by a Muslim leader in France. There are at least 1500 mosques and prayer rooms in France, 75 in Paris alone.

Dalil Boubakeur’s proposal to suspend the 1905 law has incensed France’s radical secularists, the advocates of “laïcité,” who see in his words a predictable maneuver, welcomed by the State and Churches alike, for the purpose of restoring the power of religion to all spheres of French life.

Militants of “laïcité” are convinced that Nicolas Sarkozy intends, through modifications to the existing law, to impose his view of the equality of all religions onto the French people, instead of maintaining the strict separation that has been enforced until recently when Islam came into the picture. Can of Worms: Mufti Wants Moratorium on French Law Separating Church and State >>> By Tiberge

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Separation of Church and State
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Opinion - The debate about religion and politics in Western societies - concerning that which belongs to Caesar and that which belongs to God - is as old as democracy and is unlikely to be resolved. After all, the debate itself is part of the democratic process. However, the discussion about church and state has intensified in recent years due, in part, to the rise of Western atheism.

Most recently in Australia the focus has been on the Catholic Church, in particular two of its leaders - Cardinal George Pell in Sydney and Archbishop Barry Hickey in Perth. On Friday Lee Rhiannon, the leader of the NSW Greens, sought to have Pell investigated for contempt of Parliament. It is most unlikely Pell will be found guilty of contempt. Separation of church and state is fundamental - when it suits (more) By Gerard Henderson

Mark Alexander