Arabs and Secularism

Salam al Rabadi : researcher and author in international relations \spain.

Universidade de Santiago de Compostela \ spain

National independence,must remain geographically division only,not civilized division Contains basic differences.and If there are lessons can be learned from historical developments, in terms of the problematic relationship between religion and the state, in the forefront of these lessons include:

1 - 

Linking religion in the hands of the rulers: inevitably leads to the exploitation of religion for political purposes. This is our current reality.

2 -  

If religion to overcome another religion: this means converting the second religion's followers to second-class population. And equality in this case become possible in such a framework.

3 - 

Inside every religion there is a difference: especially if it were combined religious and secular power, in the hands of the Governor of a particular religious group. And therefore are talking here, for a system of government: Wahhabi, Alawite, Shia, Sunni, Maronite....

4 - 

A political system that combines state and religion: does not prevent all cases stop the conflict between greedy governance, whether family or a party or even the closest relatives.

5 - 

The reality of religious interference in government: freezes society and to prevent and stop the development.

6 - 

any country Constitution did not provide for To determine the religious identity of the state: religion turns to a bombing of a community and political failure. because it is impossible to satisfy the followers of all religions and sects and creeds. Lebanon good example of this.

All those facts and lessons:Cross-cutting and Conflicting Need to evaluate.
There has been a lot of discussion and debate around, and under different headings: Islam and modernity, Islam between the self and the achievements of the era, Islam between the past and the future, Islam between comfort intellectual familiar and among other ideas different: Christian, liberal, Marxist, technological.

 

To the present day, Arabs and Muslims have not been able the answer clearly and critically about them.On the contrary, there is a confusion of thought prevalent and dominant in all the prints, as well as there is in the mixing of concepts and facts in everything published, and believed in the cultural field. 

These trends are today in the most difficult crises. One of the main manifestations:This ideological conflict and security, cultural and even the military,whether this conflict Visible or invisible,Silent or noisy.A good example of this,what ails the Islamic sects Currently of the differences among them or within the Muslim community in general between: moderate and fundamentalist, radical, liberal, Parties, the Muslim ikhwan, religious fundamentalism parties,Civil society organizations,Establishments religious.

It also can not be ignored, one of the most important intellectual turmoil prevailing in the present, Based on the problem: how to deal with the different other? unfortunately more specific, The other is not only foreign non-Arab, it is also, Arab Christian citizen, as is the current reality: in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon.

We are facing an era, the barriers fell and contacted people together,no separation of connection, which overlap, and visual media and audio, visual and written. Where cultures mixed and overlapping and continuous. We are in the era of the birth of human culture,common,not only is the Christian,not only are Islamic,not only is Marxism,not only liberal,not only is spirituality,not only is the material,not only abstract,not only is the technological. It's a culture of human rights and all the culture of humanity and all humanity,and every attempt to secede from this global trend Algarve is a desperate attempt and loss of time and a waste of effort.   

It seems that all those lessons that teach them history or the present reality, do not leave us only one way. Namely  way the secular or civil,system of religious freedom and human dignity. Which is based on the religious neutrality of powe and give religious freedom of the individual. Thus, the separation of religion and state. As the separation of religion and politics should be learned them experiments, including the Arab history, secularism is one of the most important prerequisites for keep rode civilization.