To the degree the Communism, or its alter ego, Marxism, and National Socialism are religions, I suppose Islam is a religion.
Islam is an ideology, an artificial construct created around a certain set of laws and interpretations of the words of a sun-crazed sand hermit, who would be clinically diagnosed today as a schizophrenic paranoic. It is no more to respected as a religion than, say, Scientology or Wicca.
Islam lacks a few prerequisites of being a true religion, in that they seem to have no equivalent in the various verses of the Koran or any of the Hadith oral traditions to anything like the “golden rule” or free will of mankind. It is no more of a real religion than the ritual slaughter of dozens or hundreds of peasants to assure a fertile harvest, based upon the divine right as defined by the priests.
There is a thin veneer of religion that is applied to Islam, but nothing disguises the fact that the ideology was spread by armed force, imposed upon captive populations, with always a choice of three being offered - convert to the tenets of this phony religion, become a subject and pay a tax to the ruler-priests which is a form of slavery called dhimmi, but without the privileges enjoyed by the converted and those born into the ideology, or suffer execution as an infidel. A lot of people ended up dying, much like happened in the French Revolution, when the ones who did not believe in the Revolution would not accept the premise of the bearded men with the burning eyes, that those not favored should die.
Another glaring fault of Islam, is that ALL females, whether they claim to be adherents of Islam or not, are all in the dhimmi class, essentially slaves to whatever Noble Islamic Gentlemen may be assigned as their “protector”, as father, elder uncles, brothers, or husbands. The female who does not behave strictly according to a capricious and ever-changing code, may be subject to sometimes highly disproportionate punishment, including death by stoning or beheading, or extreme mutilations, for even very small infractions. This in the name of “honor”, though any code of honor that countenances these measures as a means of control of females is a direct abridgement of true honor.
Schizophrenia is no longer a valid reason for organizing ANYTHING remotely resembling “religion”. Or should we elevate Charles Manson to the level of Prophet?
Tell the Muslims to go back and re-write the Koran so there is some semblence of respect for their fellow (non-Islamic) man, and remove all the references to spreading their religion by threat of death or enslavement.
Islam does not respect the practice of any religion, not even that wobbly artifice based on the Koran, but they do employ the words and invoke some form of supernatural diety to give rationalization for their acts of terror and assymmetrical warfare against other human beings and institutions.
From the hadith, the collected oral and written accounts of Muhammad and his teachings during his lifetime:
A Bedouin came to the prophet, grabbed the stirrup of his camel and said: O the messenger of God! Teach me something to go to heaven with it. Prophet said: “As you would have people do to you, do to them; and what you dislike to be done to you, don’t do to them. Now let the stirrup go! [This maxim is enough for you; go and act in accordance with it!]”
—Kitab al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 146
“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
—An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith 13 (p. 56)
“Seek for mankind that of which you are desirous for yourself, that you may be a believer.”
—Sukhanan-i-Muhammad (Teheran, 1938)
“That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind.”
“The most righteous person is the one who consents for other people what he consents for himself, and who dislikes for them what he dislikes for himself.”
Ali ibn Abi Talib (4th Caliph in Sunni Islam, and first Imam in Shia Islam) says:
“O’ my child, make yourself the measure (for dealings) between you and others. Thus, you should desire for others what you desire for yourself and hate for others what you hate for yourself. Do not oppress as you do not like to be oppressed. Do good to others as you would like good to be done to you. Regard bad for yourself whatever you regard bad for others. Accept that (treatment) from others which you would like others to accept from you... Do not say to others what you do not like to be said to you.”
—Nahjul Balaghah, Letter 31