Can secular societies have warm, fuzzy relations w/theocratic gov'ts/laws

[SujiwanKenobee]

What kind of theocratic governments are acceptable? I *think* that Tibet was a theocracy before the Chinese drove out the Dalai Lama. I don't recall an uproar over the Tibetan form of government.

After reading an earlier sarcastic "congratulatory" note about the re-institution of Sharia law (which includes the harsher Hudud law w/ extreme punishments) in Shia Iraq, I had to wonder what anyone thinks the potential voters of the Islamic world can come up with that the freedom loving west will find to be totally acceptable. (Meaning not feeling a need to "intervene" in Islamic affairs.)

Personally, beyond those people who have dedicated their lives to a religious "post"--monks, nuns, priests, pastors--I can't comprehend my entire life from awakening to sleep being guided by formal dictates of a religion. I would think it would be extremely hard, in a situation where everyone surrounding you was likewise enfolded in the daylong ceremonies, to extricate oneself. There's always someone--friend, family, neighbors, gov't-- to instruct you in the error of your ways in any department of life where you might stray. I think what bothers me the most is how hard it is for an adherent to apply *possibly* necessary criticism in such an environment. It rewards being static with being in grace. It is non-evolutionary.

I get the same visceral response to the Islam being portrayed in these riots and protests as I do with Christian people who try to convert me, have angry/literal interpretations of the Bible, those who picket or bomb clinics or gays or try to put their religion into my private life or my government. I just plain don't like them. I don't want someone to tell me that I can't talk with understanding about a religion unless I am "saved" or a student of a religious school who can speak the sacred language and not an infidel Christian-type.
I want religion to be private or personal and not in my face. I want to be able to criticize anything if I think it is harmful or like political cartoonists, hold up to ridicule that which needs to be seen.

So far, whether violent or not, I don't see the Muslim outcry against the political cartoons which also wraps up much of what they in turn don't like about the West, giving me any comfortable feelings that we can really be friends without changes occurring on both sides.

Who is going to do the changing first?

[The Magistrate]

1. No More Than Can Oil And Water Mix, Ma'am

The two systems are incompatible by their very natures.