Theocracies of the 21st Century

The word "theocracy" is from Greek theokratia, literally "the rule of God," from theos "god" and kratos "rule, regime". In other words, any country, nation or state that claims to be "ruled by god" is a theocracy.

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, a theocracy is:
1. Government ruled by or subject to religious authority.
2. A country or state governed in this way.
3. A form of government in which God is recognized as the supreme civil ruler of the state, and his laws are taken as the statute-book of the kingdom.

Because theocracies can hide themselves behind a veneer of pseudo-democracy (as in holding futile and inactionable elections, for example), the definition above should be broadened, i.e. a theocracy can therefore be simply be defined as:

A theocracy is any country founded on the basis of a religious identity. By defining itself as belonging to a religious belief, such a country will automatically exclude members of other religious or non-religious identities and set them to second-class status.

As such, a theocracy does not have to have a clergyman, a pope, an imam, or a high priest at the helm.

The United States: God is not mentioned in the US constitution. Only the far-right evangelist fringe of American society wants the US to be a "Christian Nation", while all other political currents (including conservatives, center, and progressives) reject this definition. That is why the United States is not a theocracy, even though radical southern evangelists want it to become so.

Saudi Arabia: The king and his government are not clergymen. They are civilians belonging to one family, the Sauds. As such it may appear not to be a theocracy. Yet it is founded and deeply rooted in Islam. Its constitution promulgated in 1992 (https://www.the-saudi.net/saudi-arabia/saudi-constitution.htm) sates in its Chapter 1, Article 1, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God's Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, God's prayers and peace be upon him, are its constitution, Arabic is its language and Riyadh is its capital."

Iran: The Iranian constitution (https://www.shora-gc.ir/files/en/news/2021/6/2/468_245.pdf) states in its Article 1, "The form of government of Iran is that of an Islamic Republic, endorsed by the people of Iran on the basis of their longstanding belief in the sovereignty of truth and Qur'anic justice" [Notice how questionable is the pairing of truth with Qur'anic justice]. But wait, the gems are in the first five provisions of Article 2:

"The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief in:
1. The One God, His exclusive sovereignty and the right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands;
2. Divine revelation and its fundamental role in setting forth the laws;
3. The return to God in the Hereafter, and the constructive role of this belief in the course of man's ascent towards God;
4. The justice of God in creation and legislation;
5. Continuous leadership (imamah) and perpetual guidance, and its fundamental role in ensuring the uninterrupted process of the revolution of Islam.

Israel: There is no question that the "Hebrew State" or "Jewish State" is a theocracy. It is no secret to anyone that the country is founded exclusively on one specific religion, Judaism. In effect, Israeli leaders have never ceased declaring Israel as a Jewish country club exclusively for Jews. For example, Benyamin Netnayahu in 2019 said that "Israel is the national state, NOT for all its citizens, but only for the Jewish people". Israel has two Chief Rabbis, one for the Ashkenazim (European Jews) and one for the Sephardim (Arab and North African Jews). The Sephardi Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, refers to Africans as "monkeys" and holds enormous sway over the extremist terrorist settlers. In 2007, Israel's former chief rabbi, Mordechai Elyahu, called for the Israeli army to mass-murder Palestinians, which the Israeli army obediently and devoutly does on a daily basis.

Accordingly, Israel is a theocracy disguised as a democracy because it fools the world by holding elections. As I have said before about Lebanon, democracy cannot be reduced to holding elections. Like in all theocracies or autocracies, elections are a facade. Democracy is not only about a fight between right and left, between loyalists and the opposition. Democracy is also about human rights, respecting minorities, upholding the law, maintaining strict independence of the executive, legislative and judiciary, etc. At least the Iranians and the Saudis are frank about what government they have, but not the Israelis.

According to a post by John Clark on Quora.com, "the Zionists who originally promoted the 'return to Palestine', were for the most part secular. The problem is that all definitions of 'jewishness' require a religious aspect, and so, one cannot have a Jewish state which is truly 'secular'. In most modern 'secular states' there is a negative view of such appeals as 'the US is a Christian Nation'... in fact, only the extreme right or religious zealots of the US tend to hold such a view. This view is extended to 'islamic' states. The Zionists wanted it both ways, a 'Jewish' state, but somehow avoid the association with religious zealotry that comes with using 'religion' as a defining element of the nation's self image".

As usual, ambiguity, bigotry, lack of commitment to stated ideals, and sitting on the fence, are hallmarks of Israel. By pretending to be a democracy, it attracts sympathy from genuine democracies that, truth be told, were themselves the butchers of the Jewish population of Europe during the Holocaust and support Israel only out of guilt, not conviction. In fact, modern-day Europeans are Nazis in disguise who are happy to have rid themselves of their Jewish populations (wealthy and sophisticated) which they dumped on the hapless Palestinians (poor and rural). Israel's extremist Jewish terrorist colonists murder Palestinian civilians every day, steal their lands, uproot their millennial olive groves, AND form significant parts of the Israeli government. Indeed, in Israel, civilian law and religious law are confounded, which is the very definition of a theocracy.

Lebanon: The ultimate farce of a democracy (see my post: https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2022/09/lebanons-presidential-elections.html). With its constitution recognizing 18 religious sects (and no others) as constitutive of the republic, civilian laws are again intertwined with religious laws. Every night on Lebanese television news, men in strange headgear (turbans, mitres, skulcaps, etc.) and long robes deliver statements about the political developments. These statements are in fact instructions to their affiliated politicians and followers. Some of these clergymen (Hassan Nasrallah) even have militias (Hezbollah) affiliated with, and funded by, foreign countries (Iran) with which they terrorize the rest of the population. 

Basically, Lebanon is a federation of mini-theocracies. No wonder that religious problems are all over the place: Disputes about alcohol sales, interference of the religious into civilian and political affairs, distribution of political and administrative posts on the basis of religion, the religious courts take precedence over civilian courts in personal status matters (marriage, divorce, child custody, etc.) As such Lebanon is, like Israel, one huge bigoted theocratic system hiding behind a facade of democracy.