What people forget, is that this dictum was never meant to drive a wedge between the state and religion. Quite the opposite.
Many of the founding 13 colonies had state religions. The wording of the Bill of Rights is clear, particularly where it declares "'All the power that is not expressly delegated to the federal government is reserved for the states."
Pat Robertson said it best:
"The first point in the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the Constitution, said 'Congress shall pass no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' There were certain states at that time that had established religions. Massachusetts was a case in point. They had a state religion. And they didn't want this enormously powerful Congress to superimpose a religious system on their state system. To guarantee the states retained critical rights, the tenth amendment said, 'All the power that is not expressly delegated to the federal government is reserved for the states.' The intent? The people -- i.e. the states -- have delegated power. They gave up some powers, but they did not give up all powers because they are sovereign states."
Source:http://www.patrobertson.com/Statesman/StatesRights.asp
What does this mean for the War on Terror?
To start with, it means that it's legal for the states to pass laws to prohibit a given religion. In this case, Islam.
Once Islam is illegal, you can start rounding up the terrorists and prospective terrorists on far easier grounds than proving they had an active plot to bomb the Sears Tower. Questioning them becomes easier, detaining them becomes easier and it's damn hard to orchestrate a terror attack from prison.
The benefits are immeasurable. All it would take is for a few states to make Islam illegal.
Let's say New York State is the first to ban Islam. Suddenly, anyone flying through a NYC airport or driving down an state road is subject to detention and arrest for praying to the Muslim Moon God Allah.
How many of the 9/11 hijackers would have been thwarted by this?
If Massachusetts had outlawed Islam before 9/11/2001 the hijackers would have been unable to hijack the planes they subsequently few into the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.
It's time we took a real stand against the perpetrators of violence, and outlawed a theology based on the murder of those who don't follow it.
They call it "the religion of peace" but their own religious book dictates unbelievers be killed. They seem to enjoy following that rule. If they're so eager to slaughter us, then I say we start by kicking them out of our country.