Religion and politics have never been fully separate — every political order has a theology, even if it calls itself secular, and every religious community makes political claims, even if it calls them eternal truths. The question is not whether they mix but how: whether religion is used to sanctify existing power or to challenge it, whether it expands the circle of moral concern or narrows it, whether it provides a vision of the common good or a weapon for communal conflict. From liberation theology to the Islamic concept of shura to the Buddhist vision of the dharma-state to the indigenous understanding of sovereignty as relationship with land, religious traditions have produced both the most inspiring and the most dangerous political visions in human history.
Rumi