Congratulations your adept at copying quotes from various leaders, mostly white, american, Christian leaders i might add, which adds absolutley nothing to this debate.

"I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.." Adolf Hitler

"We--with God's help--call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson." Feb. 1998 - Bin Laden edict

Many countries were founded by deeply religious men and yes deeply religious men may have been some of the greatest leaders in the past. However deeply religious men have also proved to be some of the worse leaders ever and examples of true evilness, as highlighted by the quotes above. These people also had no problem expressing their faith.

It's a very interesting argument you bring forward, however i'm not suggesting a political leader should hide their religious beliefs from the public, the press, etc. I just believe that religion and politics should be 2 seperate entities when it comes to goverment, but with so many governments throughout the world having very close links to religious establishments some sort of affect or influence on the leadership of the country must occur. I'm not suggesting that this influence is negative, but too close an association with a religion or faith can lead to hostilities. There is no doubt that the Israel/Palestinain war is very complicated and there are many factors involved, but the religious differences between the 2 factions certainly plays a big part.

So i'll pose some questions: Will there ever be a leader in Israel who's not Jewish? Will there ever be an american president who's muslim? Of course no one knows what the future holds, but i'll be very surprised if it happens in my lifetime. The point is it shouldn't matter what a leader's religious beliefs are even if it does have implications on their leadership ability. Your decision to vote for a particular political leader is based on many factors but their religious faith shouldn't be one of them. What's to say someone who believes in the Church of Space Aliens will be a worse leader than someone who's of Christian faith.

The exact reason why leaders shouldn't be openly religious is because it matters to so many people and influences so many votes. But then that's the main reason why so many leaders are openly religious and often over emphasize their connection with a religious faith; to increase voting numbers. So who's being honest?

In my opinion religion has no place in politics and i believe political leaders are often influenced by their own religious views. I'm not saying leaders shouldn't be religious, they can believe what they like. I'm not saying a non-religious leader does a better job than a religious one, what i'm saying is they should not let their religious beliefs affect their political views and decisions.