"'Qutb was wrong,' he said, parting ways with Osama bin Laden on the most elementary level. “Compare Islam and Christianity. In the Middle Ages, Christians were burning scientists. Then Muslims had a great civilization. The Christians were theocratic then. Muslims were not. We do not believe in a theocratic government that rules the people in the name of Allah. Power should come from the people. Christianity wasn’t weakened because it was separate from the state. Christianity was weakened when it supported oppressive states. The same thing is happening in Iran. Iranians are turning against the religion itself along with the theocratic oppressive state.'"
Simple, yet insightful, eh? It seems to me that for a person's religious faith to be authentic it must be chosen freely. It also seems to me that government is inherently coercive. Therefore, theocratic government can't be good for religion, and it can't make for a good government.
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