Gamal al-Banna is a religious Muslim whose laicist (secular) attitude shows in his opposition to the notion of an "Islamic state", for it is abused by politicians for political ends whereby both the Muslims and Islam are harmed. Consequently, he champions the separation of state and religion, i.e. laicism (or secularism, but not the secularization of society), in order to protect both the Muslims and Islam from the political establishment’s misuse of Islam. The Arabic term ´almaniyya (secularism) tends to have an anti-religious connotation for native speakers, thus Gamal al-Banna avoids it and considers himself an islami (Islamist), which can be misleading. Gamal al-Banna probably wants to make clear by this that for him Islam is not only a private issue but that Islam must be socially relevant and that it can be political. This does certainly not mean that he favors a religious state. The title of this pertinent book conveys this thought best: "Islam Is Religion and Community, not Religion and State."