Religion and the state.

Congratulations on yesterday's Pakistan Day, 23 March 2023, also named Pakistan Resolution Day and Republic Day, commemorating the adoption of the first Constitution of Pakistan when the country became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956. This year, the first day of Ramadan and Pakistan Day were on the same date. Also, the Christian fast, often called Lent, is now about halfway through and it will end on Easter Sunday, 9 April. (The exact time of Easter Sunday varies a bit from year to year as it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after Spring Equinox.)

Pakistan was the world's first Islamic republic to be founded, deriving from the Muslim: majority provinces in the North: West and the East, now Bangladesh, of former British India. The Pakistan Armed Forces also hold a parade on the day. Pakistan Day is indeed a proud day for the country, in addition to Independence Day 14 August. Islam is defining the foundation of the state although not everyone considered it right to include religion in the name and as a definition of the country since there are also other religious groups, with Christians being the largest, symbolised with a white section in the green flag.

Let me underline that religion is part of the identity of many countries, even those that today see themselves as secular and a clear divide between the state and the church, and other religions, too. Historically, the UK and most other Western countries have considered religion a formal part of the foundation of the state. In the UK, to this day, the head of state must belong to the Anglican denomination of Christianity. In my home country Norway, the head of state must belong to the Evangelical Lutheran denomination of the Protestant Church. The Norwegians revised the country's constitution a few years ago, but kept the paragraph about the head of state, King Harald V, having to belong to the majority branch of the main religion in the country, which until 2012 was the country's state religion, with the head of state also being the head of the church. It should be underlined that there is today religious freedom in the country and equal rights for all, irrespective of what faith one belongs to, or none. With major immigration from Muslim countries, indeed from Pakistan, Muslims form a sizable religious minority.

It is interesting to know that in the UK, King Charles III said some years ago that instead of becoming 'head of the Anglican faith', he would rather...