Divisions over Sharia law and Catholic schools could be avoided, argues SAM GHIBALDAN, if Britain decided to go secular
AS A reality TV show it might be hard to beat. Take some members of every religion, mix in atheists and agnostics and send them all to live on a desert island for a couple of years. Sink or swim; they'd have to decide how to live and work together. The more extreme would try to assert themselves; the more reasonable would look on aghast. Heated discussion, arguments and possibly violence would follow. It could go either way; they'd find a way of living together or chaos would result.

How to govern a society and the role religion should have within it is a vexed question. Recently two significant figures have entered the debate: Alex Salmond declared that we should celebrate state-funded Catholic schools and the Archbishop of Canterbury argued that aspects of Sharia law should be adopted in the UK. Both intended to promote diversity; but by drawing inspiration from the historical practice of linking religion and the state they risk undermining it.

British history is littered with the consequences of religiously inspired government. Seeking to root out heretics, Protestants and Catholics spent a few hundred years inflicting nasty judicially sanctioned murders on each other. The combination of power and religion in Northern Ireland proved a lethal cocktail. Look further afield and similar patterns can be seen around the world.