Islam and Peace
Religion and Politics
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worldwide intellectual revolution is known as
secularism. While religion is founded on
faith,
secularism is based on
reason.
The majority of the
educated classes in modern times have accepted
that matters of state should be kept independent of
sacred scriptures, and that they should be dealt
with on the basis of
reason.
That is to say that world
opinion is in favour of the secular rather than the
religious state.
India presents no exception to this rule. As a result
of the modernization of education over the last two
hundred years, the new Indian generation thinks
along the same lines as the rest of the world. Like all
other countries, India too is a part of the global
village.
Given this reality, if a state based on religion had to
be established, a sea change in world thinking – on
a purely ideological plane – should have to be
effected. Without a universal,
intellectual
revolution, it would be impossible to found a
religious state in the manner of a political island
even at the level of one’s own country.
