The potential danger of mixing politics with religion

In a BBC Radio documentary released in April 2014 titled The Rise of the Arab Spring Prof. Eugene Rogan of the University of Oxford comments on the danger faced by politicians who use religion to advance political ends. He says:

The moment you begin to play on religious sentiment, you set in motion forces well beyond your control. And any ruler, foreign or domestic, who believes they might control the religious impulse and contain it to advance their own goals and go no further, has been shown to be deeply wrong. And they have almost, without exception, had to pay a high consequence for making that mistake.

While the subject of the documentary is the rise of Political Islam in the Arab World, the lessons can be applied to other religions as well.