.... Islam is the duck-billed platypus of belief systems, neither politics nor religion, but rather politics and religion, wedded indissolubly. It is easy, and comforting, for those who do not want to study the texts and tenets of Islam, nor to consider carefully what the large-scale presence of Muslims has meant all over the Western world, in societal disruption, in expense, and in worry to continue to view Islam as a religion only.
One can continue, blandly and blithely, to simply call it a “religion” and leave it at that. Or one can begin to study, and to think, and recognize Islam for what it is: a social, political, legal and ideological system. Is this what the Framers, had they ever considered what to them would have seemed an utterly fantastic possibility, would have wanted the First Amendment to protect? [The Iconoclast] Read more
