Wilders says:
“Islam is not a religion”
and
“the right to religious freedom should not apply to this totalitarian ideology called Islam.”
re: #9 Charles
Wilders’ statements are about as un-American as it’s possible to be.
I agree that Wilders’ second statement quoted above is totally un-American. We have complete freedom of religion in this country: You can worship Allah, or God, or Jumbobo the Glow-in-the-Dark Cockatoo, or anything else you want.
However, the first statement is partly true: Islam is not merely a religion. It is also a way of life, a philosophy, a military doctrine, a political structure, a legal system, and so on. It is all-encompassing and goes beyond mere “religion.” In fact, as Edward Said might have said, it is “orientalist” of us to apply our western notion of “religion” being a separate category from secular life, and applying that definition to Islam.