How do religious beliefs affect politics?

Religion is a huge part of a person’s life. We see people who plan their lives based on their religions. We follow specific rituals and traditions because it has been passed on from generation to generation, just because these have been part of our religion. Almost everyone has his own religion. They have their own gods who they worship and adore. But what is Religion really? Well, it is a belief that a person follows. It is based on faith that there is one higher being who know everything. He’s the one who plans out every event that shall occur and he is the only one who knows your fate. For Christians, this is God. For Buddhists, this is Buddha. They are several religions around the world but what’s common is that we all believe that there is one higher being who oversees us.

These religions have their own guidelines. For Christians, they have the 10 commandments and for other religions, of course they have their own set of rules to follow. These rules are not the same per religion which means that a Christian or a Catholic has a different set of rules to follow as compared to a Muslim or a Buddhist. This difference is precisely what the problem is when it comes to politics. Just imagine, one country such as the Unites States (U.S) that has so many people in it and a mixture of religious beliefs in it. How could one president or a ruler guide the whole country?

An example given by Mandaville (2009) is the Islamic States and Movements. He said that the most important Muslim power in the early modern period was the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were the first Muslims who had interaction with the European powers. The Pan-Islamists followed the Ottomans and argues that Muslims should promote political unity so they would not face the imperial bondage experienced by the Ottomans. A political ideology called Islamism was formed back during the postcolonial period. The supporters of this ideology- the Islamists- found a way to be modern without going Western (Mandaville, 2009). In 1928, Hassan al-Banna created the Muslim Brotherhood to ensure a continued role for religion in society. A popular group today known as the Al-Qaeda was established in Afghanistan by Arab-Afghan soldiers right after the Soviet Union withdrew their troops after an unsuccessful occupation effort. The group wanted to shift away from the worldview of previous radical Islamists. Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda decided to focus on attacking what they understood to be the source of global imperialism or the U.S. This can be very much related with the September 11 attack.

We understand from the example given above that it is challenging to rule a place where there are several religions. Especially the U.S since various religious beliefs exists there. The real question is whether religion and politics mix? Can they be separated?

Politics is having social relationships with those in authority. In other words, it is when different people make decisions considering every factor. It is often associated with the government but it also exists everywhere, like within families, friends and corporations and firms. Mixing politics and religion is complicated not to mention unavoidable because of several factors. Secularism led to the idea of mixing both which is believed to be problematic and potentially dangerous (Mandaville, 2009). Secularism is basically the separation of institutions such as the church and the state. In fact, this is the best example of religion vs politics. Secularism has two main developments: The Enlightenment and the birth of modern political sovereignty. The former states that people now shift away from religious beliefs to provide rational explanations. For them, things may now be explained by social science or any rational definition. The latter states the same thing- that societies have undergone modernization and has now shifted away from fully depending on religion. A wider issue was raised by several scholars. According to them, culture must also be considered because culture is a huge part of one’s personality and individuality. For them, it is one’s identity formation and making (Mandaville, 2009).

Religion affects politics for several reasons. As mentioned, religion entails beliefs, different gods and goddesses, various traditions and lifestyles. Politics is being rational, ruling and how to handle situations with others. In this case, religion is emotional since associated with it are values, morals and the core beliefs of a person. In making a decision for instance, a single individual would put his thoughts and emotions first. He will only consider what he thinks is best based on his religion. Now, when he does this, do you think everyone else around him will agree with him? I think not. For other religions, other values exist and here arises conflict and misunderstandings. See, decisions are relative and in every situation, solutions are not the same for everyone. We go back to my first topic- How do we begin to think about the world?

An example is when the leader of a country is Catholic, all his decisions are now Catholic decisions and will be questioned by other people. Citizens of that country will clash and will lead to wars. I also take into account that culture is a vital factor. Religion and culture goes hand in hand because religion pertains to ones belief, culture pertains to his surroundings and traditions. These two makes a man’s identity and cannot be extracted from him in decision making. Thus, I don’t think that religion and politics can be separated because although we try to draw a line between the two, religion will always affect politics.

Source:
Edkins, J. and Zehfuss, M. (eds.). (2009). Global politics: A new introduction. London: Routledge.