No Room in the Inn: Jeff Jacoby's editorial in The Globe yesterday "No room at the table for the Muslim brotherhood" was excellently written and spot on correct. My alarm bells are on hair trigger alert when the smell of an organized religious usurpation of government power is in the air. I could not agree with Supreme Court Justice Jackson's prescient words more. "The Bill of Rights is NOT a suicide pact."

Those that gain power as adherents to dogmatic religious institutions talk a fair democratic sweet game before they assume power and quite another authoritarian one when they actually take the throne. The US and Israel are quite correct to worry. It is exactly as Jeff Jacoby said. When Islamic fundamentalism, its call to
jihad and imposition of Sharia law take hold it does not take long before all other opposition is silenced if not obliterated.

I would, however, expand his ideological point of view. My flashing red lights go into a frenzy when our own nation's religious interference in the rules of the state, through the vehicle of the Republican party, become stuck to the mechanics of government. Islamic fundamentalism is frightening when it assumes the power of the state BUT it is no less frightening when Christian (or even Jewish) fundamentalists want to crush opposition to the constitutionally mandated church state separation in our own country. Our nation seems often to be going Middle Ages backward as adherence to fundamentalist Christianity has now become the litmus test for entrance into a Republican political party and its ultimate quest for power.

I am an equal opportunity employer. Religion intertwined with the state is a recipe for disaster. I am no less frightened of in our own nation than I am in Egypt. Religion tied to the state is an anathema to democratic politics everywhere. I see Mr. Jacoby glaringly omitted that fact!