Religion, is it related to ethnicity? Is it related to a state?

Religion, is it related to ethnicity? Is it related to a state?

Well that seems to be where it is at now.
Even though anyone can become a Jew, still Jews more than most see the world through ethnic eyes. In other words the more religious one is, the more an ethnic origin is important.
As I am often the focus of the religious, perhaps I am more privy to their way of thinking. Indeed also on a nationalistic hegemonic pursuit, the ethnic ‘card’ can be used to great effect. Hence the great increase in sectarian wars and strife.
Surely a spiritual pursuit is required to see what all living things have in common, or at least what all humans have in common.
With a spiritual insight into the bonds of blood within a family, and with this being able to be used for the hegemonic gains of a state, then we also have the spectre of insidious inroads. This is another argument for separating religion from the state, so as to avoid an extreme right wing nationalism.
What about the Taliban and Iran? That is their business the people there are indigenous, they evolved into who they are. And no doubt Western orchestrated Islamaphobia has strengthened the hand of the religion.
But for a westerner, in a transient society, who can trace their thinking to Descartes ‘I think therefore I am’ , to The French revolution ‘Liberty and equality’ And Marxist thought and Greek philosophers. Then we have evolved differently. Maybe secularism would be more of a barrier to the spreading of Islam?
The freedom to worship should be savoured. To use this for nationalism is very dangerous.