by guest blogger Joseph L. Conn

Separation of church and state comes in for a lot of abuse these days. Religious Right leaders call it a myth and insist that government must be based on religion. One particularly loathsome essay floating around the internet these days is titled – I’m not kidding – “Separation of church and state: Straight from the mind of Hitler.”

I wonder how these characters would feel about that if they lived in Egypt. In today’s Washington Times, a short report gives the outcome of a court case involving a man who converted from Islam to Christianity.

Mohammed Higazi, now 25, told the Court of Administrative Justice that he converted when he was 16 and he wants his new faith recorded on his national identity card.

The Court said no. Higazi had not followed the proper legal procedures, the Court held, and in any case, Egyptians cannot convert from Islam “to an older religion.”

“Monotheistic religions,” the decree said, “were sent by God in chronological order…. As a result, it is unusual to go from the latest religion to the one that preceded it.

“The person who has such an attitude is straying from the right path and threatening the principles, values and precepts of Islam and of Egyptian traditions.”

Wow.

When I read articles such as this one, I feel incredibly lucky to live in the United States. We’ve got our share of problems as a nation, but thanks to that constitutional separation of church and state, religious liberty isn’t one of them. I can convert to any religion I want to (or subscribe to no religion at all), and the government can’t do a thing about it.

I don’t want to fall in with that jingoistic “America: Love it or Leave It” crowd, but sometimes I just want to say to the leaders of the Religious Right: Hey, guys (and they’re usually guys), “If you don’t like it here, go try out some of the countries around the world that don’t have separation of religion and government.

“Then, get back to us on how it works out.”

Joseph L. Conn is communications director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.