The First Principle to Eliminate Religious Violence and Build a Nation

(Written by Shahid Khan)

Principle of Intellectual Freedom or Separation of Religion and State

Intellectual freedom is an essential principle followed by all developed countries. Without separating religion and state, a country cannot provide intellectual freedom to its people. People would otherwise not be free to think about and accept any idea they choose. It is everyone’s fundamental right.

A country which keeps religion separate from state does not curb freedom of belief or expression. It does not promote or suppress any creed. It would intervene only if any actions, individual or collective, violate these rights. A citizen or a group may not use the state’s coercive powers to promote or hinder any ideas, faith or place of worship. If a citizen wants to hinder or support an idea, he must argue his case with others, not enact a law. Government has no power to persecute or establish religious ideas. No one, including those in government, may force their ideas on anyone.

So the principle of intellectual freedom or separation of religion and state is the first principle to follow if a country wants to BUILD A NATION and provide a fertile ground for scientific innovation and thus economic development. The ideas which initiated and maintained of Western society’s prosperity originated in the mind of a few geniuses, people who truly are one in a million. A country needs these people more than they need the country.

Countries that ignore this simple principle watch helplessly as the intellectuals and creative individuals including entrepreneurs and inventors flee the country and religious extremism spreads. That converts a country into a mindless and abrasive society in which masses believe in violent enforcement of their ideas rather than in rational discussion. Such societies that are non-modern or traditional retain tribal and feudal structures so people are often seen not as individuals but as members of families, clans, ethnic groups or religions. The concept of ghairat (honor) gets primacy over logic or reasoning. The eventual effect is a divided nation, without rule of law, violence, and economic disaster resulting in poverty and unemployment at a mass scale.

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