bless middleton love. yeah. not so much. oh, dear. as a young canyon, i am allowed by the constitution to exercise by democratic. right. well, i will demonstrate until the government listens to me. my family is at home without food, you know, job enough and nothing at all. that the food is expensive, even at the market places. and the majority of us are really struggling to make ends meet. institution was at a guardian you minute, amanda man. i am taking part in today's demonstration here in kenya and laying the blame on the government for all the problems we are facing as a nation. we cannot even buy a packet of mayflower for our children, which is roughly $200.00 shillings your cooking. oil is the same during that time. it's all very expensive. and to make the matter worse, the economy has been doing poorly by women as up, williamson. i'm highly supporting today's demonstrations in kenya because we were promised by the president does that when he immediately resumes office, life will be affordable. need right now i have 4 children and one of them is disabled. about almost feeding these for is an issue. life is becoming expensive all over, even in the rural areas. what was it? honestly,

i can not manage to feed them. a video circulating on the internet allegedly shows the ukrainian soldier burning a copy of the koran. the incident of ot condemnation from ron's on cali rock the head of russia's chechen republic. he is offered the equivalent of a $130000.00 for any one who detains those involved yemen. saba news agency has also denounced the incident. summon use added strongly condemns this sacrilegious desecration of the holy koran by ukrainian soldiers and calls for their immediate arrest. it's clear, these grand and soldiers are being trained to insult islam and muslims worldwide out of her spat 30 is not broadcasting the entire video. the screenshots appear to show a ukrainian soldier ripping out pages from the muslim holy book and then burning net. the video was originally posted on the social network, tick tock, but was removed. following a barrage of condemnation from users vice president ad the syrian journalist

union must alpha, i'll move. dat believes that such behavior is unacceptable. montgomery will do the low current with ukrainian soldiers did is an inhumane act. all human laws and all principles of human rights in the world rejects such defilement, even in the western world which the ukrainians led by zalinski are now claiming to want to integrate into such desecration is unacceptable to west affirms the freedom of religion. western society recognizes the right of every group of people to adopt to religion it wants in the faith at once without coercion or pressure. i believe it was a deliberate act and it was captured on video. the broadcast was intended to be widely distributed. the purpose of this act is to create a schism between face between muslims, christians, and other believers in the world. undoubtedly, this act is inhumane, and has nothing to do with human morality. in part,

it reflects the growing attitude of these soldiers oriented towards racism in the spread of neo nazi ideas. and that's all for now. be sure to check out our t v dot com for all the latest breaking news and updates. we'll be right back here at the top of the hour. ah, ah, hello, i'm manila chan. you are tuned into modus operandi. so around the world, polls show that religion is losing its favor among younger generations, doesn't matter if it's christianity, buddhism, islam, in general, religion is less popular than it was in decades past. but religion still influences the law in many places around the world. this week will examine how faith seep into foreign policy. all right,

let's get into the m o. the me. in the u. s. the separation of church and state is chiseled into the american collective conscience. often cited as being one of this country's founding values is actually totally incorrect. nowhere is it explicitly written in the constitution or enumerated in the bill of rights, that religion must be decoupled from the state. it's simply implied in the 1st amendment. quote, congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise there of all the 1st amendment says is the government will not force a particular religion on anyone. and that religion falls under the rights to free

speech and expression. so why then is god referenced so frequently, for example, in the american pledge of allegiance, a number of data laws around the country, or when politicians or go to the justices are sworn in. they take their oath of office by swearing in with one hand on the bible. perhaps a nod to the judeo christian values of the founding fathers. so regardless of no forced uniform religion in the united states, many laws and policies are originate from these faith based values of the elected leaders. and some countries, such as iran are loosely something of a hybrid theocracy and republic, where the ayatollah is both the religious leader and the de facto head of state. or in the united arab emirates, as long as not only the majority religion, but it's also the official one. and in china, the people's republic is officially an atheist state,

but the government officially recognizes 5 major religions. so for more on this discussion will turn to professor mohammed mirandi. he's an expert in literature and oriental ism at the university of tehran. professor, thank you for being with us now taking a wide lens at global politics. how do you view the role of religion and the impacts that has on shaping different countries, policies, both foreign and domestic. i think different countries have different experiences and different era has also their own experiences. countries today have one experience and a 100 years ago their experience is different and there is no singular notion of religion. in fact, often when in the west they speak about separating church and state,

they often can faded or they often say church and stayed alongside religion and state as if the church is equal to all forms of religion or the european church. and so many non westerners who are fascinated with the west or pro west often liberals, they repeat the same notion or the same idea. so they would say the separation of church and state. and they said they said they say the same thing about their own religion. in other words, since the european experience has led many in the west to believe that the church must be separate from the state. these people automatically believe that since they are very pro western, since there are orientalist themselves,

they're impacted by orientalism. they, they, they mimic for western narrative in many non western elite. they are a, mimic western ideas and western are predominant western ideas. so they say the same thing about their own religion as if the experience of the church in europe is a universal experience, as if they experience in europe must be the same for the rest of the world. whereas, while it's not universally accepted, i, i'm quite confident in europe that the church must be separate from the state. i don't think it's universally accepted, but i don't think it's right to even if it was correct for the,

for churches in europe to be separate from politics. i don't think that's necessarily the experience or should be seen as what, how the church should behave, not in america, for example. it's based on the assumption that anything, any religious entity outside of europe, whether christian muslim jewish or anything else is somehow inferior to the european brand. if i could put it that way, the u. s. for example, claims to be somewhat of a secular state, but its culture is rooted in christianity from the founding fathers. so oftentimes, these values are expressed in how, let's say folks at the state department as an example, may view another country's cultural norms as perhaps sexist or even barbaric. and they'll issue sanctions against that country on the grounds of human rights. is this an indirect way that religion impacts policy?

yes, i mean their views to whether they are they consider themselves to be christian or secular. i think it is still the same thing. so many of the secular elite in the united states or religious lead to the united states or secular leads in europe or religious beliefs in their behavior towards the rest of the world is somewhat similar. their policy is directed towards the rest of the world are very similar. so usually we hear that republicans are more religious than democrats. but the wars that have been waged by the democrats and the republicans have been bipartisan for the most part. and the same in europe, europe has been highly secular, but they destroyed libya, the, the most wealthy country in africa and turned it into a lawless land,

where slaves are traded. so whether you call it religious or central, i think it's a, it's irrelevant it's, it's an immoral policy. it's an more immoral behavior. it doesn't reflect the will of europe or north america because ordinary people are basically fed information by big business or the mass media. that's controlled by powerful elite, so they really don't know what's going on yon, their borders and the suppression of countries. for example, the america have been considered the, the, the backyard of the united states. so they are all christian countries, but the united states sees them as being a subordinate to u. s. government policy. so i don't,

i don't think it's, i think it's, i think there's a lot of, there's racism involved as to premises. i'm and all this tribalism involved. but at the end of the day it's, it's just, it's a type of exceptionalism. now whether that exceptionalism you link it to religion, or you link it to the city, or to raise or whatever that is going to create this sense of superiority and hierarchy, and therefore, countries will deem themselves to have exceptional rights. so, and joseph or l. b, u e. foreign policy chief speaks about europe being at garden and the rest of the world being basically jungle that comes from that euro centric. so premises and he doesn't take into account the fact that europe has destroyed much of the rest of the world through imperialism, through colonialism. he does not understand. he does not want to understand. i'm

sure he knows deep down the truth, but he doesn't want to understand that the minorities that have climbed over the walls of this garden are only there because europe has destroyed them and they have nowhere else to go. now the chinese government, they are officially atheistic, not secular. they are specifically atheist, although they do officially recognize a few big world religions. how does this lack of religion and government reflect in how they create laws or develop their foreign policies? again, here, i think the, the issue is that china, these tell now, has been focused on its own development. unlike western countries over the past few centuries, which have looked abroad, which have looked to expand their empires, and they were rivals western countries. war went to war against each other because

of these empires because of the land that they each wanted for themselves. but the chinese, at least in recent history, they've been looking to develop their own country. and therefore, the rest of the world, whether the chinese are better than the americans or not, the experience of the well rest of the world is that the chinese have not impose themselves on other countries. now, western countries would say if they couldn't, they would. but so far they haven't, they haven't overthrown different countries through cause. and in fact, the chinese government has helped bring hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and they're all nan. whereas the united states and this in the last few decades, it's basically wrecked their own middle ash not only through

perpetual wars and through liberalism and liberal capitalism and fail policies. but also, i think through the selfishness of individual ism, the united states has her sacrifice, its own people. whereas ordinate that of the bulk of chinese society, which was poor, is now moving towards the middle class. they can, they have a better life, they are fed better, they, they are, they have a better education that better health care. and they had before. whereas in the united states it's the reverse, it's in europe, is the reverse, it's declining. i'm not saying it's non existent, but it's the united states is definitely not the united states of the 1960 s or the 1970 is of the 1950s. so whatever the ideology in

china, we see that the united states is doing more damage. or europeans, secular, or otherwise, they claim to be secular, but they're doing more damage to them to the rest of the world and to their own people through these policies. then, then, then the chinese, the chinese are truck doing trade in business. whatever their intentions are, we don't see the sort of behavior that we've seen among western government. and so they're, they're building their country. professor mirandi don't go anywhere lot more to discuss with you. coming up next with religion on the decline. how will the aquatic government deal with china's atheism? we'll discuss it when we return. sit tight. bam. out we'll be right back with

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welcome back to the m o i manila chad. let's turn our attention to china. as you probably know, china is expected to overtake the u. s. as the biggest economy in the 21st century . now professor mohammed mirandi is sticking around with us. thank you so much for staying around professor. so how does an atheist state such as china address a country that is based on religious law, like saudi arabia is a sunni muslim state or iran being and islamic republic. it's shia muslim. there she islam. is it more difficult to see ida i because of the opposing views on religion as a matter of law? i wouldn't say that saudi arabia has been promoting so near song. i would say that it's highly influenced by mohammed now to and therefore the ideas of mohammed. if not, we'll have our key and therefore that's why many people say they're well happy. so

i would consider that the ideology that was promoted, that has been promoted for i so the rate for decades to be very different, different from one significant way is different from traditional. so nissan that we have seen and, and across this long world, in the case of china, what i know. so in the case of china, i would say that the issue is not so much religion. i don't think religion is key here. as long as the chinese respect the sovereignty, a country like iran, as long as china respects the sovereignty of any other country. then i think that regardless of the religious ideology or the lack of a religious ideology,

train and business can continue. and you and iran, you have people who are very secular and you have people who are very religious. you have shop owners who are secular shop owners who are religious. they do business the tray, you have neighbors who are religious and secular. the issue with between china and iran, is that so far we haven't seen china attempting to undermine iranian sovereignty to impose itself more recently. we've seen western countries make that claim about why we and then a chinese high tech industries. but for us who are looking from a more, let's say about a more balanced perspective, we know that the united states and europeans,

they are competing with china with regards to high tech for products. now if we look back at western history at the crusades that began in the 11th century, these wars were waged based on religion kind of world escape this history or do we still see remnants of religious wars today? do you have any examples that might come to mind? well, you know that in the crusades the europeans kill the very large number of native christians. they massacred and slaughter christians in the, in the areas which are now called palestine, lebanon, and egypt and, and syria and jordan. so it's not simply about muslims and christians. the crusades

were very brutal toward anyone who stood in their way. so on the one hand, they were religious, but on the other hand, the they were, they weren't just about religion. and again, even if we were to say that this was, this was a war wage against this one. i would argue that the problems that we see in the war, the world today are not as i was saying earlier, not necessarily about religion itself. right now. the conflict in europe is between christian countries. the russians are orthodox. nato countries are largely a catholic and anglican artisans and some orthodox as an you ukraine. but the conflict is one about power and influence,

and it's often racist and oriental to listen itself. the depiction of russians, for example. and i say this because i the same sort of trunks or used against our country or are part of the world. russians have often been historically depicted as barbaric as brutal in western literature and western discourse and racist. troops are constantly even though they are not dark skinned. they don't look like many of them don't look like me or you, but we do see this war taking place and that war is about power and influence. the united states and nato, they expanded eastward, needlessly. they impose the qu, they support it right when groups they don't want to call them not to use anymore.

but when you look at the western media over the past years, that's what they were calling. i think they were speaking about the nazi problem in ukraine. so and nazis were, were humanist, so not necessarily religious. they were humanistic. the nazi is in the 1930 s and fourties. they had great admiration for greek civilization. they saw themselves as the inheritors of the greek civilization, the rightful here, as they saw the contemporary, grecian people as degenerate. and they, they admired music and, and literature and the arts, but they were not sees, and they carry how genocide. so i don't, again, i'd say that whether this is religion, religious or non religious, i think it's mostly about empire power,

wealth and a, and domination. do you view religion as part of laws or policy for our country as being a good thing? or is it detrimental to its advancement? well, we don't have a single religion in the world. and different religions are different world views. and within different religions we have different sex. and therefore, just like at the beginning when i was talking about church, you know, when they say church and state should be separated, then they say therefore religion and state should be separated. which in a way, assumes this hierarchy, this, your central clarity hierarchy because the church in europe shouldn't be a part of the state. therefore, no religion should be a part of it anywhere else in the world. because if it doesn't work in europe, obviously doesn't work anywhere else. that is implied that europe is superior.

whether you're religious or secular in europe, your, it's, so even even the religion that you don't accept is somehow superior to all those other religions that you don't accept if you get what i'm trying to say. so the experience of the church in latin america, the experience of a storm in different parts of the world are different the different sacks of different use. so different societies in communities have to make their own judgment. but what i can say is that in the case of iran, we have a country where before the revolution overwhelmingly, people were impoverished. before the revolution, most of the country did not have electricity. they didn't have running water. and they didn't have national cuz they didn't have a nationwide health care networks and the list goes on.

now we have universal education. we have in the villages they have primary healthcare services in the country based upon that religious ideology, despite all the sanctions, despite the wars that have been imposed upon it, it is remained independent and even under the sanctions has been able to develop its hi tech industry whether it's nano technology or stem cell research you are on is creating country in the world. and with regards to its military capabilities, i think it's now being talked about. so even though i don't think i don't stop, you know, military capability is it's, it's a sad thing, but it should be even debated in the world that we live in. we should be living in a more peaceful world. but the point that i'm trying to make is that despite all the sanctions and despite all the pressure under this system under this, under the credit constitution,

that is religious. iran has had significant successes. and a lot of the problems that it has is because of sanctions, because of foreign pressure because of animosity from western countries. all right, we'll leave it right there. professor mohammed mirandi, thank you so much. so for all intents and purposes, it sounds like the policies arrive at decisions more based on exceptionalism, rather than religion these days. all right, that's going to do it for this week's episode of modus operandi. the show that dig deep in the foreign policy on your host manila chan. thank you so much for tuning and we'll see you again next week to figure out the ammo ah

march 20th 2003 u. s. army and its allies invaded iran, a minimum kind of set up with was 2003 us president george bush declared victory in the iraq war id there for delta, you know, up i would put up for a potential hired because december, the 30th 2006 said i'm was saying was executed, but adam is up, we'll shut down them from december, the 15th 2011. a ceremony was held in bagdad tomorrow. the end of the u. s. military mission. in reality, the u. s. army is still in iraq. a globe. she had

a couple of football, but there was a, in terms of russia in china is development of an international strategic agenda. we need to ensure fairness and equality in the world. neither. they are trying to present an outline, comprehensive, strategic partnership with russia as a future benchmark of relations between states that the shooting pe embarks on an official visit to the country with russian president vladimir, pope says, in case the black, the rain deal is not extended. russia is raging supplies, the african countries most a need for free and switzerland's biggest. thank you. b as swallowed that that's rival credit with.