To convey your views about secularism, you took examples of USA and India. Why not Pakistan and Saudi?
Are you implying that USA/India are more secular and pakistan and Saudi are working towards becoming like USA and India (or better) as far as secularism is concerned?
Ps - Thanks for this conversation.
I don't want to derail the topic, but as far as protection religious rights of non-muslims go, yes Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have not followed the tenets of Islam in many cases. But even the extent to that which is violated is exaggerated at times. Let me state that just like democracy, being secular is a work in progress. Its not on off state, but you grow into it. Although India is far ahead in this regard it is still a work in progress.
In the case of Pakistan, although not such a good record, there have been attempts from Pakistan to rectify this and they have a department of minority affairs that tries to look after their needs and provide protection to sikh gurudwaras in consultation with the local sikhs for example. But again this is a work in progress. And any sane Pakistani would condemn the recent killings of Christians but the political will of the govt. is the problem and they have failed in this regard. Another problem is unbridled extremism that has been unleashed in the country in recent months making the problem for religious minorities even worse.
Similarly in Saudi Arabia, nowadays, non muslims have their churches were they can attend prayer services in private compounds. Although individuals were always allowed to worship in the privacy of their own home. I have lived there and I know of some hindu families that kept idol images/photographs as part of their puja place in the privacy of their home.
But apart from that Saudi Arabia, still has a kingship which is completely UnIslamic, no muslim will deny that. There has to be some form of democratic governance and since 2004 election reforms were initiated so that elections for local councils could be conducted. So all this is in process and yes they are way behind and it is the responsibility of the muslims to push this forward.
However, countries like Malaysia, Mauritius, Brunei, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey e.t.c. have a pretty good record of taking care of the religious minorities overall.
There are a number of muslim countries that officially designate themselves as secular but actually strictly restrict religious freedom in the name of secularism and hence the allergy to Muslim countries with using the term secular. That is why explain that secular can also mean practicing religious freedom as shown by US/India/UK is necessary to clear doubts and I used this example primarily for muslims who oppose secularism.
Islam and secularism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On the other hand there are many countries particularly Arab who have been confused by what secular means vis-a-vis the Turkish experience and are more concerned in hanging on to power by using Islamic imagery rather giving up their seat and allowing democratic governance (Eg. Gaddafi)