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Good morning xxx  You don't have to look at the history of these islands for long to see that religion and democracy can make very uncomfortable bed-fellows. Northern Ireland is a perfect example. It's a real pity, a tragedy in fact, that no-one pointed out that painful lesson to the designers of the Egyptian constitution. They might have avoided some obvious mistakes, which were having severe consequences, even before last week’s military intervention.    Democracy in most Western countries tends to mean "first past the post, winner takes all". For decades, Northern Ireland was fully democratic by those standards. Every eligible man or woman had a vote, regardless of their religious persuasion. The majority formed the Government. But as there were always more Protestant voters than Catholic ones, the Protestants always won, always "took all". So the Protestant parties were always in power; the Catholic parties were always excluded.    Under first past the post, the Muslim Brotherhood won the Egyptian presidential election and proceeded to apply their beliefs to the business of government. It's what mainland British political parties do all the time. Their opponents accuse the Brotherhood government of incompetence and cronyism; and feared they were starting to reshape Egyptian culture along Islamic lines. Whether or not that justifies their actions, it had become less and less workable. In Northern Ireland the power-sharing solution was eventually accepted by both sides - including their religious leaderships - as absolutely necessary if there was to be any kind of political settlement and peace on the streets...