Is Islam a religion or more of a political engine for world domination?

"This is NOT an attack on Islam" ... BUT
"Islam is more of a political engine for world domination than a religion."

Nothing I say about this is going to make you happy, so let me just go ahead and say at the beginning, it's two faced and hypocritical to put both of those statements down within the same message. One makes the other a lie, and if you are going to lie, you have nothing to say that needs hearing.

More importantly, you are playing right into the hands of al Qaida, the Imams in Iran, Imad Mugniyah, Ayman al Zawahiri, former President Makhmoud Aminablowjob of Iran, and if you listen hard, you can hear bin Laden applauding from Hell. All of them want this conflict to be cast as "The West against Islam", and you might as well be a card-carrying member for supporting their propaganda.

I have spent most of the last 12 years in Moslem countries. I was even invited not once, but twice to Moslem weddings. Most Moslems are just like most Jews, Christians, and perhaps even atheists, in that they want to live in peace and give a better opportunity to their children than they had.

Are there problems with Islam and terrorism? Yep. But did you never hear a Christian say, "I don't think abortion clinic bombers are right, but they are right that abortion is murder." Fine, great for you to have an opinion, but that opinion justifies the actions of murderers. Islam has the same problem and Islam is no more to blame for "Islamic" terrorists than Christianity is to blame for abortion clinic bombers.

We do need more Moslems to step up to the plate and clearly say what the truth is. Terrorists are SCUM, MURDERERS, EVIL, AMORAL, less than animals, lower than whale sh1t, (English does not contain sufficient words to describe their depravity) whatever it takes to distance those who want to live in peace from those who want to use any excuse, including religion, to justify being murderers.

We need this as the statement from our government as well. We need to quit supporting the radical "Islam against the West" call and start supporting the "Civilized People against Murderers" call.

So please, tear up your membership card in al Qaida and join the civilized people.

Islam is a true religion, but unlike the US, religion and the state are more connected, almost one in the same in some countries, which is why people are highly discouraged from converting. It is estimated that 75-85% of Muslims are peaceful in their practice and like Christian religions, have their radical groups. Unlike Christian religions today, they are trying to seize control of countries - similar to the crusades of old. Back then it was about seizing Jerusalem and other Holy Lands, not wiping each other's religious followers from the face of the Earth. Like with any cause the extremists become the stereotypes and the de facto face and voice of the cause

PO1 Steven Kuhn, I think you make a good case with your points. Especially the fact that in many cases leaving the Muslim religion is frowned upon so severely. The contrast between that and sharing the Christian Gospel is an excellent point.

That said, though, I think Islam is a religion. Muslims do believe in God (Allah), they're organized, etc. I think some leaders in Islamic countries (and groups) have hijacked the religion for their own (often) evil purposes. Many Muslims say, and I believe, that the Islam of terrorists (ISIL, for example) is not "true" Islam.

If any one Muslim man can stand up against terrorists, everyone should listen to what he has to say.

As SGM (Join to see) has said in his own response you can't claim to not be attacking Islam and then delegitimize it in the same breath. If you feel that Islam strives towards unethical political aspirations then talk civilly about just that, don't demonize the religion as a whole.

To actually respond to the content of the topic, I too take issue with many of the same things you do. I take issue with any Islamic community that responds with violence towards anyone who converts to another faith. What is and is not jihad is different depending where on the spectrum you find an adherent. Obviously you have the extremists who take a very outwardly violent interpretation, but you also have the other side of the coin where adherents view jihad as an inner spiritual struggle. One does not necessarily equal the other, and Islam is not the only faith that has questionable verbiage in its holy writings.

None of the above is grounds to delegitimize Islam as a whole. Its legitimacy is without question except from the eyes of bigots. I would encourage you, and anyone else reading, to consider this when talking on these subjects in the future. We have Muslim brothers and sisters in arms here on RallyPoint and it shouldn't be too much to ask to create an open and non hostile community for them to interact within.

These are the times that try our belief in the First Amendment. We are not alone. The authors of the Bill of Rights had similar problems with Catholicism. In their correspondence you will find a debate wherein they struggled with the concept of giving equal protection to the papists. After all, some reasoned, Catholicism is concerned with maintaining princes to rule over other men which seemed an anathema to the concepts of free people envisioned by the Founders. Ultimately, as you well know, they elected to make freedom of religion equal to all people of all religions. They decided that to exclude any one might tempt future generations to extend the exclusion to others.

Thus, it is an important question: Is Islam a religion? If yes, it's free practice must be respected and protected in the United States. If not, it may be restricted.

Without going into all the legal ins and outs of the question, simply accept that I'm going to cast my vote for "Yes", Islam is a religion. However, that doesn't mean that we must allow such practices as may infringe on another's rights. Remember, your rights end where mine begin. For example, if a Muslim attempts to murder me for any reason (including the free practice of Islam), I have every right to protect myself. Indeed, under my interpretation of the Commandment "Thou shalt not murder", I have an obligation to defend myself. If I allow someone else to murder me when I have the means and opportunity to prevent it, then I am equally guilty of murder as an accessory.

On a less violent note, consider that Mormanism is a religion that has had to discontinue the practice of polygamy to remain compliant with the rule of law in America. I believe that this provides a legal precedent for reining in the more extreme practices of Islam in America.

One point that constantly irks me is the God vs Allah thing. People do realize they are one in the same? What Arabs call God. Christians in Arab countries refer to god as Allah as well. It's the same diety/concept. God = Allah.

to be fair here, the muslim religion is no more dominating than Christianity or judiasm 'go and spread the word of god' and all that. Additionally, the inquisitions, crusades...

It is not so much a political engine as a beacon of hope for young men in the region. Look at it from this POV: there is a large birth rate, lots of young men, few young unmarried women, no jobs, no welfare. What else do they turn to? Well, who will keep them busy, give them a pension, a wife? militant groups. Religion in general is only what leaders spin it to be. It is faith that is the true light. Sometimes though there's someone using a circus mirror to reflect it.

The foundation of ISIS's power comes from politics, not religion. Both Syria and Iraq have Shia governments. Sunni Muslims aren't well-represented in either system, and are often actively repressed. Legitimate dissent is often met with violence: Bashar al-Assad gunned down protesters in the streets during the 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reacted violently a 2013 Sunni protest movement as well.

Sunnis understandably feel oppressed and out of options. Some seem to be willing to wait and see if life under their fellow Sunnis in ISIS is any worse than it was before. ISIS, for its part, appears to be attempting to exploit this concern: that's why it's set up community, child-care, and medical services in some of the Sunni communities it controls.

That doesn't mean ISIS is morally better than Assad or Maliki: their group is still hyper-violent and genocidal. It's just that outreach to Sunnis is part of their politico-military strategy.---- --Z.B. Sep 10 , 2014

": an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group"

That almost makes PT a religion...