In a well-written article, Karima Bennoune suggests that there is a real need to have a clear division between the functioning of a state and of its religious institutions.  Many other writers speak of this division – and more accurately lack of division – as the prime obstacle to the realization of human rights around the world.

But is unyielding secularism really the solution America, or even the world requires?

Last week’s news that Mitt Romney joined the other two leading GOP Presidential candidates in affixing his name to the public pledge put forth by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), highlights a disturbing and still visible reality: America is in trouble.

This time it has very little to do with the rising deficit or the faltering economy, at least not directly.

The signatures of the three main republican candidates on the NOM pledge ensures that in the run up to the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, all three Conservative candidates endeavour to defend five fundamental points:

• Support and send to the states a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman,
• Defend DOMA in court,
• Appoint judges and an attorney general who will respect the original meaning of the Constitution,
• Appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters,
• Support legislation that would return to the people of D.C. their right to vote for marriage.

There is a discernible and an apologetic crusade currently taking place in America (and elsewhere around the world).

Individuals, mainly on the extreme right of the political spectrum are mounting an incredibly successful push to get “their country back”.  These individuals are organizing politically, manufacturing cultural wars, and requesting (ignorantly) to have the spirit of their constitution respected.

What they fail to admit is that the very constitution they mis-read and desperately are trying to defend is what in essence has created the multi-ethnic, pluralistic, and dynamic cities and countries of the West.

Correction: they despise the fact that their constitutions have been skillfully navigated in order to finally give those on the margins of society a voice.

It is time, they suggest, to bring America back to the days where nation-building consisted of promoting the white (read: racist) and Christian (read: anti-Muslim and anti-Semite) lifestyle, and building communities of individuals where homogeneity (read: anti-immigration) was the norm of the land.

So much is often said for the supposed “clash of civilizations” that pits religions, cultures, and sexualities against one another and supposes that every Muslim, every American, and even every homosexual prays, lives, and loves the same way.

In order to unite, these individuals need to dismantle cohesive communities built on a mutual understanding that the only thing we all have in common is the fact that we are all fundamentally different.

In order to foster this division, false ideas need to be advanced: crime and immigration are synonymous, multiculturalism is the reason for economic woes, gays in the military or in our schools as the reason for the moral decay in our communities, and others who pray to different gods are incapable of integrating.

This clash of civilizations is a facade for the real clash currently taking place in America: religious fundamentalists versus secular humanists.

In fact, there are factions of the American population that are attempting to place God -- the Christian version of course, and no other -- back at the heart of American politics.  (Did it ever really leave?)

All over the world this clash within civilizations is currently playing itself out: Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Turkey, Israel, and yes, the United States of America.

I know it probably comes as a shock to some that the U.S.A is being mentioned in the same sentence as nations who, on this side of the Atlantic, are looked upon as uncivil to some, but the comparison is indeed warranted.

In all of the aforementioned countries, religious zealots (who often misread and misinterpret their holy texts) believe themselves to be fighting a just cause.  A jihad, if you will, against rebels or left-wing Liberals who are promoting a moral relativism decaying the fabric of humankind.

Religion and rights, to these folks, are incompatible.  They do not and cannot exist simultaneously. Progress, of any kind, is seen as a dangerous journey.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, in all major religions, the concept of human dignity is integral to their teachings.  Therefore, despite what NOM or other bigots in America want to believe, Mitt Romney and the two other GOP candidates are not true Christians.  In fact, they are not even true patriots.

This is false Christianity and this is false nationalism.

Also false is the claim made by dogmatic secularists who view any form of religious practice as the cancerous cell waiting patiently to attack the immune system of "organized" and "democratic" societies all around the world. Rather than proliferating the belief that religion in and of itself disables societies from granting its citizens equality, a more sincere dialogue should be taking place.

The solution is not banning or out lawing religion in the public spaces of the nation.  But it certainly is not allowing blind faith or religious credo to govern either.

What we currently have are two dominating (and differing) views trying to yell louder than the other. On one side, you have radicals who believe that (the Christian) God needs to be infused back into the politics of America.  The other side, equally fanatical, wants God and its followers completely shut out of national discussions.

Combined, there is indeed a whole lot of talking, but very few are actually listening.

(Photo source)

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