Here's Riverbend on the on the triumph of theocrats in the Iraqi elections. I couldn't help but measure her words about how religion makes politics personal against the statist religion of the Cult of Bush that now dominates the Republican party in the US.
The trouble with having a religious party in power in a country as
diverse as Iraq is that you automatically alienate everyone not of that
particular sect or religion. Religion is personal- it is something you
are virtually born into… it belongs to the heart, the mind, the spirit-
and while it is welcome in day to day dealings, it shouldn’t be
politicized.
Theocracies (and we seem to be standing on the
verge of an Iranian influenced one), grow stronger with time because
you cannot argue religion. Politicians are no longer politicians- they
are Ayatollahs- they become modern-day envoys of God, to be worshipped,
not simply respected. You cannot challenge them because for their
followers, that is a challenge to a belief- not a person or a political
party.
You go from being a critic or ‘opposition’ to simply being a heathen when you argue religious parties.
Americans
write to me wondering, “But where are the educated Iraqis? Why didn’t
they vote for secular parties?” The educated Iraqis have been
systematically silenced since 2003. They’ve been pressured and bullied
outside of the country. They’ve been assassinated, detained, tortured
and abducted. Many of them have lost faith in the possibility of a
secular Iraq.
Then again… who is to say that many of the people
who voted for religious parties aren’t educated? I know some perfectly
educated Iraqis who take criticism towards parties like Da’awa and
SCIRI as a personal affront. This is because these parties are so
cloaked and cocooned within their religious identity, that it is almost
taken as an attack against Shia in general when one criticizes them.
It’s the same thing for many Sunnis when a political Sunni party comes
under criticism.
That’s the danger of mixing politics and religion- it becomes personal.
