The most recent case in point, at least in Christian countries, has been Ireland. The political division of Ireland separated Protestants and Catholics who spent decades in what was euphemistically known as “the troubles,” bloodshed and violent attacks between the IRA and the Ulster defense forces. But the arguments weren’t about religious questions; the war wasn’t fought over justification by faith alone or any other of the theological questions separating Protestants and Catholics. The war was fought over who would have political control of Northern Ireland.

That is but one example. The Crusades would fall into the same category.

But the issue in the Middle East today is vastly more complicated. It is impossible, when dealing with Islam, to separate religion and politics because the Islamist believes in theocracy. So the church is to be the government and people are to live by religious law, the sharia. It is almost impossible to separate political motives from religious motives. Is Ahmadinejad, who believes in the return of the Twelfth Imam and the end of the world, when Islam will reign, motivated by his religious convictions in building nuclear weapons or his political convictions? I don’t think you can separate them.

Similarly, the Jews have both a biblical warrant to return to their lands in Palestine and a political charter granted by the UN. Are they fighting religious issues with the Palestinians or political issues? In that case I think the majority of Israelis are moved by political independence, not biblical prophecy. But again, the two issues are impossible to separate.

Christianity as a worldview has, certainly in modern times, effectively separated church and state. But it is not Christianity that is involved in the Middle East. Muslim scholars would have to explain how they are able to separate the clear fascist ideology that has run through the Muslim brotherhood from the various strains of Islamic faith. Having read the Qur’an and the works of Said Qutb and others, I think it would be very hard to do. The problem in the Middle East is basically the problem of theocracy plus a virulent anti-Semitism, more the consequences of fascist ideology than theology.