SHOULD RELIGION PLAY A ROLE IN POLITICS?

YASMIN: Faith and state should always be kept separate. I am a practising Shi’a Muslim. I pray, go to mosque and feel part of a wider global community. My faith is in my heart and head – indoors, intensely personal. It’s solace; an antidote to the lies and noise of life outdoors. It makes me strive to be a better person. Millions of believers across faiths and lands share those feelings and views.

Political Islam, in contrast, is aggressive, dominant, ruthless and totally unethical. Think about Iran and Saudi Arabia: the first, a brutal Shi’a theocracy and the second a Sunni-Wahhabi powerbase which violates every human right within and outside the Kingdom. Think about authoritarian, powerful Catholicism. Secular states have their bad histories too and some, like China, are currently behaving monstrously towards individuals and minorities. But, it seems to me incontrovertible that the