Albright believes in these specific items about the separation of church and state:
- No religious test for public office
- No established state religion
- No abridgement of right to religious liberty
However, she says, it does not mean we must remove God from all aspects of our civic life. Each of us can worship (or not worship) God in his or her own way. Our activities can be - and no doubt are - influenced by our religious beliefs. However, we must keep religion out of the public domain.
Nevertheless, religion is extremely important to many people and must be considered in any diplomatic activity. Too often in the past, according to Albright, we have stripped all issues of their religious aspects before deciding how to negotiate. She says this makes no sense:
"If diplomacy is the art of persuading others to act as we would wish, effective foreign policy requires that we comprehend why others act as they do."
Much of what foreign leaders do depends on how they and their constituents view their religion. In the Arab world, the religion is Islam. This means we must get to know Islam thoroughly. To help us along, Albright has a chapter about Islam. It's very good and shows the reader that Islam is not very different from Christianity, nor from Judaism. All these religions favor forgiveness and reconciliation.
Sure, there are belligerent statements about non-Muslims in the Koran. But, she points out, there are plenty such aggressive statements in the Bible. The general thrust of all these religious texts is "love they neighbor as thyself."
Spreading democracy is a worthwhile goal, Albright says, but we must be careful how we do it. Democracy can not be imposed. It must grow from within. In each country it will take a different shape. We can't invade a country like Iraq and make it a democracy. As you can see we made a mess out of it. There is no way we can achieve "victory." However, we must see that the country does not fall apart.
In other Arab countries, we should encourage democracy, even though we know that Islamists would probably win. Albright feels that when Islamists get invoved in the give-and-take of democratic activities, their viewpoints will soften and become more moderate. She says:
"The inclusion of Islamist parties will give them a stake in the democratic process, just as their exclusion would give them a stake in trying to destroy the process."
Albright believes we must negotiate with everyone. To negotiate successfully with leaders of Muslim countries, she likes to quote the approach of President Bill Clinton:
"If you're dealing with people who profess faith, they must believe there is a Creator; if they believe that, they should agree that God created everyone. This takes them from the specific to the universal. Once they acknowledge their common humanity, it becomes harder to kill each other; then compromise becomes easier because they've admitted that they are dealing with people like themselves, not some kind of Satan or subhuman species."
Another quotation from Bill Clinton on the subject of talking with people who are sure they found the true faith:
"It is OK to say you believe your religion is true, even truer than other faiths, but not that you are in possession in this life of a hundred percent of the truth.... We'd be a lot better off with an honest dialogue about our differences provided everyone 'fesses up about not knowing the absolute truth."
This is a great book. It presents in a very clear manner Madeleine Albright's view of how to talk to people whose faiths are different from yours, how to counteract jihadi propaganda, and how to spread democracy around the world in a way that leads to peace. You will benefit from reading it.
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