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Islam is proto-socialism, and the worst of the bunch.
The umma is a soviet.

I think your second statement is dead on the money, Hardraade, though I'm not sure I can regard Islam as proto-socialist.

I think it's safe to say tyranny is tyranny is tyranny; conversely, I doubt that actually says a great deal.

It seems to me Islam has more in common with feudalism than socialism. It's a thoroughly religious-looking ideology that rigidly statifies humanity into a social pyramid based on inheritance. Marxism in all its numerous guises—communism, socialism, "liberalism" or "progressivism" in the U.S.—is outwardly anti-religious, though in practice, it's much like a religion. It, too, mandates social stratification, but in theory, at least, one's social status isn't inherited, though in practice, it often is. European feudalism seems to me the closest match to Islam, with several differences:

• Christianity was a genuine religion, whereas Islam clearly isn't.

• Christianity evolved beyond the practices of the Middle Ages, whereas Islam has remained petrified in the same form since shortly after its emergence.

• Christianity has adapted to changing social conditions and mores without losing its fundamental principles, whereas Islam clearly hasn't.

• Christianity has repudiated the forms of hatred it accepted and even embraced in the past, whereas Islam hasn't.

Those significant differences aside, Islam and feudalism seem closely similar to me: theology dominates everything; the rigid social order is unquestionable; the very few rule the vast majority with absolute theological authority, any anything new is anathema. What passes for "justice" is brutal. I have a hunch women in Europe during the Middle Ages were better off than women under sharia today, though probably not by a great deal.

The moral and intellectual mountain range America still hasn't crossed is the realization Islam is an anti-religion rather than a religion. Until we accept that fact, I'm afraid, we'll continue to spin our wheels.