re: #29 zombie

Wilders says:

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.

I completely agree with that, although I won’t necessarily call it “orientalist” with all the judgment this term is charged with. There is a misunderstanding here between what the West considers a religion, based mainly on Christianity and the general evolution of the West, and some other religions that do not fit this concept. Islam IS a religion, but it’s very different from how a regular Westerner perceives a religion as limited only or mostly to the personal spiritual sphere.

There are a lot of other projections of Western concepts which cause many misunderstandings (such as perceiving Middle East history even during the Muslim caliphate in terms of nation states).