[lugsoul]

Okay, then - let's get back to the basic question. Moore said Hinduism and Buddhism are not "religions" as that word is used in the 1st Amendment. Why not? What else is not? What would be required for them to be "religions?" What kind of "organization" do they need? Is Islam a "religion" for purposes of the 1st Amendment?

[inquest]

What would be required for them to be "religions?" What kind of "organization" do they need?

As I said earlier, I would think they'd need to be organized enough to be an organ of the state, but you have my curiosity going with what you said about Islamic countries, so I'll be curious in hearing further elaboration on that.

[WOSG]

Islam is definitely a religion in the sence of "Organized religion". Moreso that even any Christian sect.

I find it quite offensive when ignoramuses even on FR, who know neither the theology of Islam nor Chirstianity, compare "fundamentalist" Christians with Islamic fundamentalists, as if "strong belief" made them alike.
Bull-hockey! Does the "strong belief" of fundamentalist Libertarians and fundamentalist Marxists mean that Marxism is the same a Libertarianism??!?

The real fundamentalist Christians of 30AD -300AD had *no* political power and were persecuted by the state.
In Byzantine Empire, the Church and State were closely linked, and ye tthe emperor and the bishops were separate and had different domains. For that empire there was an official religion and so theocratic disputes becaem political disputes and vice versa. In the West, it became more of a separation - twin powers, the king and the ecclesiastic orders, representing the duality of the kingdoms on earth and in heaven. Consider Henry II vs Becket and Henry VIII vs Thomas More.
The middle ages' theology, even through Locke, is imbued with that division, and the Renaissance on represented the break of faith and reason in the two realms.

Yet from DAY ONE, Islam was about political leaders (Mohammed on down) using "revelation" to guide matters of state and rule the people. There are no "two realms" to an Imam of that persuasion; fundamentalist Islamic thinking is *inherently* theocratic, in a different way from Christianity, whose theocratic inclinations were constructed well *after* Christ.
Some of this I am sure has to do with the lessor Greek philosophic influence on Islam, relative to the heavy Greek philosophic influence on the West.

Whereas Jesus himself expressed the division between God and state ("render unto Ceasar .."), I am unaware of something comparable in Islam.