The recent incident of Sept 11 and its aftermath has raised a number of questions. Among them are:

1) Why is that Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network use Islam to justify their act of killing so many innocent people when Islam actually promotes peace and does not condone such evil acts?

2) Why is it that many Muslims throughout the world support Osama despite the fact that he is responsible for many evil acts?

In my opinion, the answers to these two questions lie in two problems faced by Muslims throughout the world, particularly in Islamic nations. The first problem is that many Muslims do not understand the teachings of Islam.

The failure to understand the Islamic teachings has blinded many Muslims to the point that they are easily influenced by the Islamic teachings spread by people such as Osama, the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime.

The second problem is that some Muslim leaders are misusing Islam for the purpose of getting support and power.

The first and second problems mentioned contribute to each other. Steps have to be taken to solve these problems. I believe that the second problem is one that should be given more attention.

One way of solving the second problem is the separation of government and religion. This is to protect religion from the grasp of irresponsible politicians and governments.

The separation of government and religion would mean that religion cannot be made a political issue. It does not allow Muslims who choose to become religious teachers, ulamas, muftis or other such posts that involve service to the practice and teaching of Islamic principles, to be involved in politics. It also disallows politicians to use religion as a campaign tool to get votes.

The idea of separation of government and religion is one that I am sure will be hard to accept and will be equally difficult to implement. However, I believe that we must take steps towards implementing the idea of separation of government and religion.