People offer prayers at the Badshahi mosque on the occasion of Eidul Azha in Lahore. — AP Photo

There are certain inflexible constants that are applied to the analysis of Pakistan and its governance, one being that Islam is an indelible part to the identity of the people and the functions of the state. However, to organise a nation in such a manner not only limits the ability to develop a constitutional legal framework to guarantee rights but it also harms the spiritual body of the religion as well.

The separation of mosque and state can be a process which is individualised to Pakistan, but a process that must take place for the nation to hasten its constitutional and spiritual development. Many of the readers of this column may dismiss such an idea based on their understanding that the Pakistani people and their leaders absolutely value Islamic- based governance. However, the same dependence on religious-based governance and identity existed 200 years prior in the United States. While the case of Asiya Bibi may reveal the frightening religious intolerance embodied in Pakistan, the Salem Witch Trials conducted in the beginning of US saw the death of thousands of women based on Church convictions of “heresy” and “witchcraft”.

The founders realised that if religion was their only unifying principle to form the nation, it would divide the State by giving the majority religion rights at the cost of the minority.  James Madison, a founding father, once said, “What influence have [religious] establishments had on Civil Society. In some instances they have been sent to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny….. Rulers who wished to subvert public liberty may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries (partners).”

Yet, the link between religion and politics was strong even to the Great Enlightenment philosophers who advocated for the creation of the secular US democracy. Their belief was that every public official would act out of a duty to the State and the Constitution, but would also be dictated by the religious morals engrained in him. George Washington acknowledged the separation of Church and state but also stated that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to political prosperity and that “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

The dichotomous way of looking at governance as either Westernised/ secular or based on medieval Shariah law forgoes these lessons of America’s history concerning religious identity. The solely religious unifying element of Pakistan’s people has forced the ruling elite and the courts to legitimise all their actions with appeals to faith rather than legal principles.  This allows for groups like the Taliban, who challenge the writ of the Pakistani state, to gain acceptance as part of the Islamic brotherhood and Pakistan’s Muslim identity.

Thus, one way describe the benefit of a secular and modern state is to understand that the body of Pakistan may undoubtedly be Islamic for some. However, just as any human body requires clothing to protect itself from the elements, so does a religious-minded public require secular and tolerant policies that provide protection against the political elements.

Just as when individuals put on clothing to protect themselves, their body remains unchanged, a tolerant secular state does not challenge the beliefs in the heart of Pakistani Muslims. Rather, it provides protection for their faith unfettered by political winds. This protection is especially necessary when facing a harsh environment, which well describes a Pakistan beset with economic crises, a war raging across its border, and its flood of international extremists.

Without recognising that the fallacy of obsessively attempting to create an Islamic state devoid of tolerance, the Pakistani Islamists are walking through a cold winter night naked, believing they will not catch pneumonia and die. However, we know that if the body continues to stay in the environment of Pakistan today, it is destined to become sicker and sicker until it meets an unfortunate end. And it would not just symbolise the death of Pakistan, it would be demise of the true components of Islam that compose its body.

The only way for the nation to survive is to cover it with ‘clothing’ -- in the form of a governance concerned with constitutional freedoms and equality rather than religious chauvinism.  However, such an abrupt alteration to the nation’s status quo may cost leaders the support of followers today in exchange for the admiration of the generations to follow. Individuals like Thomas Jefferson may have forged a secular identity for their religiously minded nation, but even he was called an ‘infidel’ publicly by his competitors and by the England Palladium published in 1800. However, giving clothing to the spiritual body of the empire through the development of legal/ constitutional protections will be essential to the long-term success of Pakistan.

The writer holds a Juris Doctorate in the US and is a researcher on comparative law and international law issues.