Religion and Democracy

Friday, I believe it was, I was watching the late news and they broadcast a BBC report on Islamic Fundamentalist in England. During the report a small group of young Islamic men told the reporter that Islam was perfect and it didn’t need the false western ideas of freedom and democracy and if anything these ideas would only pollute Islam.

To say the lease this kind of thinking is shocking and frightening to someone like me who holds the ideals of democracy and freedom very high. But it not just the Islamic believers that think like this you just have to look at any of the non-mainstream cults to see the same kind of thinking at work or even the mainstream. I remember years ago a CBC report on Israel where a couple of elected members of the Israel Government said they would rather see the end of democracy in Israel then to see Israel be anything other than a Jewish state. I suspect there a number of Christians in Canada and the US who have similar feelings about the dominant role of Christianity in North America.

And if you think about it if some guy was to come along in the future and convince a majority of Christians he was the second coming (It ain’t ever going to be a woman) the rest of us can kiss our heretical butts and democratic rights goodbye. Let’s face it, there’s really no need or room for democracy when the divine takes over.