And religion is conquest.
The goal of Islam is "Dar al-Islam" which roughly translates to "House of Peace". This is good, one might think. What could be bad about peace, after all?
The problem is, Islam can only reach "Dar al-Islam" when all Muslims can practice their religion as the ruling sect.
Meaning you either follow Islam, or are subservient to Islam (what is known as a Dhimmi; a non-Muslim inhabitant of an Islamic state).
That is it. That is what "peace" means to Islam. It is right there in the Koran.
Every non-Muslim should know what "Dar al-Harb" means, because it is the other side of the coin for "Dar al-Islam" (House of Peace). "Dar al-Harb" means "House of War".
So, everyone knows when you flip a two-sided coin, you can only have one side you see when you hold it. That is exactly true in this case. You cannot have both of these things in Islam. To them, they cannot simultaneously be in both the "House of Peace" and the "House of War" at the same time.
Interestingly, this is one of those areas they prefer to practice Taqiya (Islamically accepted/mandated deception and lying) because they often can't afford to have non-muslims understand what exactly their real goal is, which is either the conversion of all non-Muslims to Islam, or total subjugation of all non-muslims to an Islamic state. So they lie and obfuscate on this for public consumption.
It is fascinating, that there are a huge number of people who think the Koran and the Bible are two similar things that simply recognize the same God in different ways, but they aren't. The Koran is a political document that outlines not only the specific elements of government, punishment and structure, but also provides specific detailed instruction as to how Muslims must carry out details of their daily life. It is a political document, because Islam is a political movement.
Bottom line, anyone who thinks that the "peace" process is imperiled by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has no understanding of what the peace process to Islam (as outlined in the Koran, and recognized and followed by devout Muslims) really is. (By the way, I know you understand this well, as anyone who reads Daniel Greenfield must, but this is for general consumption)
Great article and great post rlmorel. From someone over in the ME.
Excellent summary. Thank you.