"Iranian metal guerrillas Confess have been sentenced to 14 1/2 years in prison by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Tehran. For the crime of playing metal, frontman Nikan Khosravi has also been sentenced to 74 lashes."
I think noodles has it right. There are a million different ways you can read most (any?) religion, and choosing a rigid, arbitrarily narrow interpretation of it as how you rule an entire country is the very definition of tyranny.
This is exactly the reason for the first amendment. If a government is founded upon a religion, then whatever the religion prescribes as a sin becomes criminal behavior. Since the State now believes they have a mandate from god, persecution is soon to follow. Christianity has it's own history of this, with the Inquisition being the most notable example.
For most of history, government has been the applied wing of religion, and religion has been the idea incubator of government. The genius of the Enlightenment separated the two. There was doctrinal support for this in Christianity ("render unto Caesar..."), but Islam expressly weaves a tight relationship between theology and governance. Khomeini-ism in Iran provides a lurid example, but treatment of non-believers and "heretics" is shabby in almost all majority-muslim countries.
Muslim reformers seek to institute secular government, and more power to them. It's a tough road ahead for them.
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