John Lind has a terrific article on Salon. Titled ‘Wanted: Freedom from Religion,’ its initial line goes like this: ‘The theocratic repression in Iran is a reminder that there can be no freedom without secular government.’ Lind rejects the common idea that the horrors in Iran are part of, as he puts it, ‘a global conflict between democracy and dictatorship.’ Rather, the power wielded by religion is the key, as this blistering section insists:
The demise of political racism leaves political religion standing as the most widespread form of tyranny in the world. The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the creedal line. If the problem is solved, it will be solved by universalizing the principle of the separation of religion and state.
Hear, hear.