If we remember our news watching of the last couple of weeks, we'd know that there is a very strong secularist movement in predominently Islamic Turkey.
So strong, Turkey enjoys a secular government, since about 1921 or so, when the Ottomans were overthrown by Ataturk.
Gad, I should have been a teacher. An insufferably snooty teacher. That can't spell.
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I don't think immigrants to Canada ever came here to flee the turmoil of the reformation etc. In fact, I'm not even sure immigrants to the American Colonies were fleeing the bloodshed of religious wars. Some were fleeing religious persecution, but that doesn't mean that they weren't champing at the bit themselves to persecute some smaller group.
I think the idea of a secular state to stop the strife between religious cults was an idea of the Founding Fathers of America. And at that, it may have just been Thomas Jefferson who championed that cause, with a little help from a pamphleteer of the time. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]