had, and the growth of the Ottoman Empire, which caused serious religious imbalances especially in the Balkans. At birth, the United States, most of whose citizens were from Europe, took note of these and made a clear separation between church and state. Today, most states have declared themselves as secular, yet there are still many instances for clashes to occur. The main difference between now and then is in the real and true motives. Then, it was largely religion behind the conflicts, but today it is not. Moreover, this one truth, which is hidden from many. That there is much more to religious conflicts today than mere die-hard fundamentalists on both sides, that behind all that noise is political greed, and a protracted struggle for power and resources. Once such conflicts begin, it is very hard to break its momentum. Take any politician, who is running for executive office, for example, the president. He knows that there is a majority Christian population in the country. He also realizes that he can win the election if he appeals to this majority. Thus he pledges allegiance to them and swears to support their cause. In another model, politicians of the same religion gang up and form religious political parties, and there is destined to be big trouble if you have two or more of these in your country. A struggle for power between the two strongholds can lead to civil war, and it did in the Sudan. A similar situation exists in Northern Ireland, where the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party and the Catholic Sinn Fein (Pogatchnik, Seattle Times) and its military wing, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) have been struggling for power (Walker, Times). Thus, there have been several confrontations between the Catholics and the Protestants, such that at present fences have been built to separate Catholic neighborhoods from Protestant ones. Even Religion, page 4though it started as a struggle between two political houses, it has reached the stage ...
