Quote:
Originally posted by moe.ron
If I use her definition on what constitution a nation being religious based nation, then Indonesia is. According to her, the US is a Christian nation. Then, Indonesia is an Islamic nation. However, if we go technical, neither the US is a Christian nation nor Indonesia. US is a secular nation that prohibit the estbalishment of religion by the government. For Indonesia, it's not entirely true. There is a ministry of religion. It is has little power and is more of a think tank. However, it is funded by the taxpayer. There is also a Shari'a court in some district. The Shari'a court can be over turned by the "regular court."
Back to the topic, Indonesia guarantees religious freedom according to its constitution.
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What other Islamic nations offer freedom of religion moe.ron?
And while America was not created with Christianity as its official religion, it is a country that is steeped in Christian history. Quite a bit of the populace has selected leaders based on this. There have been 4 great awakenings (see Robert Fogel) that have controlled the fundamental structure of the state and the issues which are voted on. At the same time, it can be said that America is diverse in this age - especially since certain migration restrictions were lifted in the 1960s (see Diana Eck).
Hence the summary is:
1) America has a strong link to Christianity while Christianity is not the official religion.
2) There is a sense of tolerance that is coupled with the influx of immigrants in the last half of this century which led to diversification of religions
3) This sense of tolerance and freedom of religion is rare in Muslim countries and actually the opposite - a downright contempt for non-Muslim dhimis - has occured in most nations leading to repression (especially in the examples stated earlier of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran).
-Rudey
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