I know that many will say: When was religion ever separated from politics?

The divide is between a religious person who has a sound body of knowledge in politics and another who doesn’t. Politics is an independent science and requires more than a degree from a Shariah college to be understood and vice versa.

What draws attention and amazement is when preachers and religious scholars on the pulpits or on television stations issue fatwas to millions of people on political matters and to discover that the basis for their information is either popular analysis which nobody would call political science or old theses inherited from the Cold War era and especially the communist literature that flooded the Arab world for a number of decades and became a sort of beginner’s guide to politics for many.

We must be wary of political jurists such as Al-Kabeesi, Kibla and Al-Qaradawi and others in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon who talk of nuclear weapons and military plans, decisions of the Security Council and the history of recent wars, the Anglo-American conflict, the shares of OPEC, the strategies of the superpowers and other issues that require a great deal of specialist knowledge, just as religious matters require a different kind of knowledge.

These religious scholars should educate themselves politically because with their limited knowledge they are liable to cause harm in the minds of the people — in the same way that an ignorant person would when poking his nose into religious fatwas.

Look at the thousands of young men who have become human bombs in a political game. Why? Because some Sheikhs have got hold of the wrong end of the political stick, by watching satellite channels or reading some the literature I mentioned.

I heard amazing things from one Egyptian Sheikh who said that what the Americans have done should be confronted with jihad, because without approval from the Security Council America is the transgressor.

Since scholars don’t see the parallels and aren’t terribly knowledgeable about the recent past, he perhaps wasn’t aware that the US did the exact same thing for the Kosovo Muslims, in accordance with our wishes and more specifically those of Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — all of whom urged the US to get involved.

However, Russia threatened to use its veto to protect its Serbian allies. To overcome that hurdle, Washington prepared an international force without the approval of the Security Council and expelled the Serbian forces from Kosovo and then got rid of Milosevic and tried him in an international court later.

I heard another scholar repeating what he had heard other ignorant people say — that America granted Iraqi reconstruction contracts to its companies and eliminated all other countries. Because that Sheikh hadn’t tried to find out more, he didn’t realize that the current contracts relate to the aid being paid by Washington (around $1.5 billion worth). The American system, like the Saudi, Egyptian and Indian ones, insists that priority be given to national companies as long as the aid comes from the pocket of the donor country, in this case the US. As for those contracts about which there is a quarrel among the bigger countries — their time hasn’t yet come.

Another comment I heard from a Saudi Sheikh was that he believes that the Americans have come to steal Iraq’s oil. I wanted to remind him that the US didn’t steal Saudi Arabia’s oil, so why would they appropriate Iraq’s. The Iraqis dream of getting benefits similar to those received by Saudi Arabia. Why would the Americans during this war pay $70 billion for oil that is not worth more than $20 billion?

This is an opportunity for Iraqis after decades of having their wealth squandered by the previous regime on adventures that left behind mass graves, horrific prisons and long lists of disappeared citizens.

It is incumbent upon anyone who wants to give an opinion about political matters to study the science properly. Just as watching television doesn’t produce religious scholars, so watching it doesn’t produce political scholars either. It simply provides light and quick educational “snacks.”