Opinion

Secular state necessary for religious freedom Islam, secular societies don't seem to mix, thus an estrangement.

Political leaders in Britain, Germany, and France have voiced doubts about multiculturalism, with regard to “radical Islam.” Our own leader (I suspect) just wishes both issues would go away.

Multiculturalism is a political theory, that has saturated some intellectual circles, but like Mao's “let a hundred flowers bloom” it does not make much practical sense. You may forge an empire out of many cultures and languages, but in a democratic nation too much diversity creates chaos. Vide Iraq.

The real problem with multiculturalism and Muslims in the West involves the secular state. This is a recent Western invention; in fact, the U.S. created the first in 1789, soon followed by revolutionary France. In 1776, all nations and the British colonies in America supported established religions, discriminating against all others. (Citizens tithed to the established church whether they belonged to it or not.) Virginia (under Gov. Thomas Jefferson) first disestablished its state church (Episcopal) in 1776, while Connecticut did not abolish its own (Congregational) until the 1830s. The principle of banning religious tests for office was cemented in the federal and eventually state constitutions — but this was a new and radical idea that became a fundament of modernism.

“Separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution, but Thomas Jefferson penned and popularized it; most religionists in the U.S. accept it; and freedom of religion is now established in most modern Western nations.

However — neither religious freedom nor multiculturalism sanctions defiance or variance from the secular law. As a matter of fact, most successful denominations in the U.S., imported or domestic, have undergone formal or informal reformations to assimilate. Reform Jews do not follow the laws of Moses; Catholics ignore papal instruction when it conflicts with popular culture; Mormons discovered a new revelation against polygamy. Americans believe in the principle, when in America do as the Americans do. We live in a secular society whatever church we attend or do not attend.

Those who do defy secular culture remain outliers on the margins. Few religious believers in America are so alienated that they cannot obey the secular law.

The multicultural problem with Islam is basically a fundamentalist Islam which like all fundamentalist cultures by nature is intolerant and does not swim easily in a Western muddy pond whether Denmark or Dallas. Islamic theology does not even admit the notion of a purely secular state, nor the equality — in treatment by the state — of all religions within it.

Of the 27 predominantly Muslim countries, only one tolerates religious freedom on the European or American scale. In fact, it is a capital crime in many Muslim states to abjure Islam or lead others to do so.

Until such views are reformed, Muslim demands for “multiculturalism,” to have their own communities, will always be dubious and even dangerous for host societies.

There is no place for a triumphalist religion in the United States — but there is always room for another reformed and purely American version.