I want religion kept out of politics too. But religion IN politics has been very much a British tradition, reduced in quite recent times.Especially Catholic vs Protestant. Civil wars; executions of 'heretics'; etc. Much of it ended about 300 years ago, but there was near-civil war in Northern Ireland until 1997, and their politics is still divided on religious lines.
Blasphemy laws were repealed in England and Wales only in 2008. In Scotland not till 2024. Not yet in Northern Ireland!
I don't like Muslim pressures on voters either, but what about conservative Christian pressures? All the people who make a fuss about 'keeping religion out of politics' NOW- where were they in 2010, when my secularist, pro-choice MP was smeared as 'Dr Death'; when the representative of the local anti-abortion Life group posed as just a 'concerned citizen' and sent vile smear leaflets around; when David Cameron, incoming Prime Minister and MP for the constituency next door to mine, did fuck all to stop it? When a Telegraph writer enthused about my MP's narrow defeat as 'the best result of the election' and darling Ann Widdecombe, then still a Tory, urged 'people of conscience' to do the same everywhere? Well guess what, Muslim activists are 'people of conscience' too! Either one supports secularism in politics or one doesn't, but religious interference isn't a great thing untill it's suddenly practiced by people of recent immigrant origin.
I don't like the Shokat Adam brand of politics- but there are, even to this day, far more Danny Krugers and Sammy Wilsons than there are Shokat Adams,