Written by Don Byrd
That’s the question tackled by a substantial NYTimes piece from David Kirkpatrick. In an interview with Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat el-Shater, an emphasis on separation between religion and government is not sounding too likely.
[Shater] says that recent elections have proved that Egyptians demand an explicitly Islamic state. And he is guiding its creation from a position that his critics say may undercut his avowed commitment to open democracy…
“The Islamic reference point regulates life in its entirety, politically, economically and socially; we don’t have this separation” between religion and government, Mr. Shater said in a lengthy interview. “The Muslim Brotherhood is a value-based organization that expresses itself using different political, economic, sportive, health-related and social means. You can’t take one part from one place and another part from another — this isn’t how it’s done.”
A true democracy requires some manner of religious freedom for all. Without separating the institutions of religion and government, achieving that ideal becomes nearly – if not completely – impossible. As a baseline, all should be free to worship as their conscience dictates.
