Islam is a Religion, but so is Marxism.

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Jul 19, 2009 at 08:42

ZE, while I agree with you that Islam is a militaristic doctrine, I'd also agree with others who say that it is a religion. That is, it represents the "ultimate concerns" of a large group of people.

You see, I am a primitive and superstitious person who believes that there's no such thing as an atheist--only a idolater who is too dishonest, too ignorant, or too both of the above to name his little god. I also agree with the late constitutional scholar Howard Berman that laws ultimately rest on a religious foundation.

I also believe that the religion one follows makes an important difference. Yes, the Jews and Christians got along in America and a number of other North Atlantic countries and their colonies, but this ultimately goes back to the West's experiment in limited government was born out of a Christian intramural debate on the meaning of the eighth chapter of First Samuel and the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy. it was on the shoulders of such disciples of Calvin who used these texts to posit the political supremacy of law over the will of the power-holder that the American founders stood, even if they and their heirs often failed to acknowledge such a debt.

Islam, with its polyannish view of human nature is prey to every crack-brained conspiracy theory that arises; and with its belief in a rightly-guided Caliph, sets itself up for tyranny.

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