Introduction
The term religion refers to a category that is applied in explaining some unique or specific things about cultural tradition. Some examples of religions include Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism among others. It is in order that religion should play some part in passing some laws in a state, however, it should not lead a country, and this implies that people should rule themselves but not be ruled by religion.
The reason why religion should not be a part of politics is that most countries that made religion part of their states and politics did not gain anything but instead suffered from terrorism, unfair killings, poverty, fundamentalism, religious minority, oppression of women, and hence nonbelievers. It is therefore a demand of the time that the open-minded people should come forth and separate religion from politics because it has become a reality that can not be denied that if the enlightened people do not come ahead in time and separate religion from politics and the state they will be creating great dangers for the civilization of mankind.
Secondly, the states should separate religion from politics since the government is required to sign all people irrespective of their religions. If religion is made part of politics then this will fail. Any citizen in a country should not be recognized by his or her religion but should be equal in the eyes of the law and government. This way there can be no favoritism against anyone based on his or her religion.
Religion and churches in the 16th century
During the 16th century, many churches were marked with a lot of power and engaged in false principles and misconduct. The churches particularly engaged in the teaching and selling of luxuries. In addition to this, there was the buying and selling of church leadership which was a result of corruption in the church hierarchy (Norton, 1995). The most troubling part of these malpractices was the killing of people by churches and especially those who went against the religious practices of a particular church. The churches such as the Church of England were dominated by the rich laymen, full of financial and intellectually independent clerics.
1500 years ago Muslims engaged non-Muslims especially Christians whom they believed wanted to suppress their rights as Muslims into a revolt. This revolt led to the killings by Muslims of anyone who did not want to follow the Muslim faith. The Muslims even forced those who had been converted to Christianity to live as Muslims.
Hatred of the Arabs with the Jews
The hatred between the Jews and the Arabs has led to the killing of thousands of Arabs by the Jews. Religion is considered to be the main reason behind the hatred and the killing between the Jews and the Arabs. The hatred of the Jews by the Arabs is based on the judgment of the Arabs of the Jews as people who are beaten and confined by Mohamed. This hatred began from the Jews to the Arabs which left the Arabs surprised as according to them, the Jews were weak and coward people who could easily be dominated and confined by Mohamed. This hatred against the Jews has been preserved by the Arabs because the Arabs believed that unlike any other non-Arab or non-Muslim the Jews made it in taking back the land that was believed to be the everlasting property of the Muslim world.
The Second World War and the killing of 6000000 Jews
The history of the Jews during the Second World War is marked with massive killings in which the homes of the Jews were looted in several cities of Germany together with the Jews’ shops, towns, and villages. During the looting, thousands of Jews were beaten to death. In the year 1941 in Lviv, the autonomists of Ukraine ordered large pogroms where they murdered approximately 6000 Jews. About 4000 Jews were later killed by the Nazi forces while others were killed by the Romans. In Poland where the biggest population of Jews was found, 90% 0f the total population consisting of about 3000000 were murdered. The killing of the six million Jews is marked with the holocaust which was associated with a lot of endurance of distress and terror. The holocaust got its roots from the characteristics of the Jews, their religion Judaism and culture which led to their misunderstanding with their neighbors, and this led to chauvinism, intolerance, and maltreatment leading to world war two.
Religious politics in America
There has been the rise of religion in American politics over the past seventy-five years that is beginning in the year 1932 in the election of Franklin Roosevelt up to the early stages of the year 2008 during the presidential race (Hoyle, 2007). The role of religion in American politics has become controversial in the 2008 presidential elections. President elects Barrack Obama had to address the issue of religion and politics because he became a victim of religious politics. The allegations that Obama was a Muslim started when he paid a visit to the Somali community in Kenya and was dressed in a turban and other local outfits. This made Clinton upset with Obama and the photo of Obama was later deduced as suggesting Muslim garb. The campaign organization of Obama had to respond to this by pleas and letters from Christian leaders vouching for Obama’s Christian faith to correct the misunderstanding among the supporters.
The religious allegations against Obama influenced people to vote for democrats during the elections due to the fact that these incidents had attracted nationwide media exposure which definitely increased Obama’s popularity. In addition, the allegations were found to be false and politically propagated.
Conclusion
There has actually been an increased rise of religion in American politics. However, the role of religion in politics still remains controversial. This, therefore, demands for the noninclusion of religion in politics as the inclusion of religion in politics only causes suffering and deaths to people depending on their religions. It is therefore a call for different states to stop blending politics with religion.
References
Hoyle, T. (2007). A Book That Will Shed Light on Darkness of Religious Politics Beliefs. The London times, p. 8-15.
Norton, G. (1995). Guide to Historical Literature. The American Historical Associations journal, 2(3), 302-305.