I agree.
It is also a cult (at all times)
The most accurate definition of "a cult" being an unpopular religion.
The term actually had technical definitions till a few decades ago when it began to be used by "traditional religious leaders" to stigmatize new and "weird" religions.
By that definition, of course, the early Christians were "a cult." In Oz, till recently, Seventh Day Adventists were considered a cult, probably one that ritualistically killed children.
Of all the things I can think of as a bad idea, putting some government agency of deciding what religious beliefs are acceptable, and which are "a cult" or "not a religion" is very near the head of the list.
Look at it this way. There are a good many people who believe any disagreement with the gay agenda is "hate," and that any religion that teaches hate isn't "a real religion." Do you want a government agency to have the power to make that determination and use government authority to crush "hate religions?"
That’s not what I said.
Islam says that when they hit 10% of the population they are to work towards enslaving (literally) and killing non-Muslims and work to make that the policy of the US government.
IOW, this particular “religion” has said that when they reach that point their adherents are to become criminals.
I’m saying that our immigration policies should help them never reach that point. Sort of like limiting the number of ebola patients we will allow to fly into our country...
If another religion said that at some point or another their adherents all have to kill gays (for instance) then they likewise would be COMBATANTS.
I do recognize the need for limits on what is considered criminal. Refusing to bake a wedding cake for gays could be defined as a crime and we’d be in big trouble, unless the measure of what makes somebody an enemy of the nation is that they are actual physical enemy combatants.
What I’m saying is basically, as I understand it, what Geert Wilders was saying: we need to stop Muslims from becoming a large percentage of our population. How to do that without religious discrimination? I think the only way you legally do it is by recognizing Islam as a religion only up to the point where they are required to ALSO be a criminal/terrorist enterprise. Because they preach actual physical violence against non-adherents, which makes them combatants. Refusing to bake wedding cakes does not similarly make somebody an enemy COMBATANT.
There are characteristics that identify a cult, totally independent of the religious teachings. Stuff like forbidding access to any view besides their own, punishing disagreement with the leader, controlling all the physical conditions of the adherents (such as food, clothes, who adherents can associate with, being imprisoned, etc), threats if they leave the belief system, etc
And Islam fits it all. They are a cult.
Ever think of what Ramadan does? It messes with the meal and sleep cycles. Typical cult practice. The same thing, if used by the US military, would be called torture, used to “soften” the captive’s ability to resist, and making them more vulnerable and suggestible.
Not allowing a woman to be in public without a man with her? It means the only man (the only people who have any power in the society) she can get help from is her husband, who is legally allowed to rape her, etc. It’s a cultist’s dream situation.
If you abandon Islam, you are required to be killed. Threats much? Speak against Islam and you must be killed? The worst mob in the world can’t beat those threats.
Islam is a cult - not because of what they believe but because of what they DO, as official protocol.