Week 11: Religion & Government

With all my respect and admiration for the world religions, I think that religion and government shouldn’t be mingled.  Each religion that we have in the world today is unique in its own way and each one of them has their own beautiful sides. Ultimately, all the religions teach the same idea. Religion assists us in understanding God and leads us into the right path; the path of humanity, peace, and good ethics. With the globalization and diversification of the world, we encounter more religions and interact with people who have different religious view than we do. Since not all of us believe in the same idea and not all of us have the same view of religion, it would be problematic if the government imposes one certain belief on its people. Thus, religion shouldn’t be a part of government because the government influences us. Since the government makes laws and regulations which we must obey, religion shouldn’t be a part of the government because in that case, the government’s decisions would be inclined toward the particular religion it’s following. America, being a free country, especially shouldn’t implement such systems because it’s a diverse country with people from different backgrounds, believes, and values. Contrary, religion plays an important role in government in most of the Middle Eastern countries. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the government follows the Sharia, which is the Islamic law, in all cases and turns to Islam for guidance in every issue. The reason why such system works in there is because most of the residents are Muslims with a very little population being followers of different religions.  But because in America, people follow different religions or not religions at all, it would be difficult to make a role for the religion within the government. Furthermore, religious freedom is a founding principle of America and therefore, religion shouldn’t be interconnected with the government.