Debate with Ayann Hirsi Ali: Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

http://intelligencesquaredus.org/index.php/past-debates/islam/

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Their dabate addresses some of the claims in the considerably
shorter article below.

Is Islam a Religion?
by Vijay Kumar
A recent Tennessean article mulled about the legitimacy of Islam as a religion
in relation to the disputed Murfreesboro mosque, but never defined either
"legitimate" or "religion" so came to fatally flawed conclusions.

The word "legitimate" has several relevant meanings, one of them being
"according to law." Every fundamental of Islam stands diametrically opposed
to the supreme law of the land, our Constitution.

Islam opposes separation of church and state; the First Amendment of the
Constitution requires it.

Islam seeks to eradicate freedom of religion; the First Amendment defends it.

Islam suppresses freedom of speech; our First Amendment guarantees it.

Islam strips man of the right to trial by jury, due process, and freedom from
self-incrimination; our nation's forefathers bled and died to preserve these
precious rights, memorialized in our Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments.

Islam commands cruel and unusual punishments; our Eighth Amendment

forbids them.

Islam proclaims all men slaves to Allah and to Islamic leaders; our supreme
law abolished slavery and involuntary servitude with the Fourteenth
Amendment.

In short, Islam is the single most authoritarian, oppressive, and consummate

enemy to our cherished God-given rights and freedoms, guaranteed by our
Constitution, that this nation has ever faced.

That is not a "religion;" that is a political totalitarianism whose ultimate

stated goal is to wipe actual religion from the face of the Earth, and make
every knee bow to Islamic hegemony and to Islam alone. Islamic imperialism
is infinitely more dangerous than Nazism and Communism combined. Nazism
was defeated in less than twenty years of its creation, and Communism was in
power less than 70 years, but Islamic imperialism and hegemony has been
with us 1400 years and has consumed innumerable nations, cultures, and
civilizations.

Islam does not recognize Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Sikhism, or

Taoism to be legitimate religions, and it considers Judaism and Christianity to
be failed, imperfect, and corrupt religions--even though they all predate Islam,
and themselves defined the very concept of "religion." Such is the arrogance
of Islam's worldview of its own supremacy.

The word "religion," according to Cicero, comes from relegare, "go through
again, read again," and "consider carefully," and it correctly implies strongly a
bond to the collected wisdom of man about his relation to a supreme being
and the universe, and his responsibility to his fellow man. This tradition of
religious wisdom goes back thousands of years in many civilizations
worldwide.

Islam contributed no such wisdom to mankind. Its purported religious wisdom

was plagiarized from the actual religions it disdains, and was arrogated to the
purposes of violent conquest, slavery, looting, and totalitarian authority over
others. It isn't accidental that the very word "Islam" means "submission," nor
that its punishment for renouncing Islam is death.

The fact that the Quran itself is a political document is not open to argument:
it is the political constitution of Saudi Arabia, where Islam came into being as
a political and military force.

Islam's trail of violence, terrorism, and conquest throughout its history tells
any reasonable person that it has become imperative to study and evaluate
Islam and Arab imperialism objectively, empirically, and critically. Such
analysis is not bigotry; it is simply empirical deconstruction, using reason,
observation, and the scientific method.

The people protesting the building of the mosque in Murfreesboro are

protesting because they are the most informed members of the community,
who have actually studied the subject and know with unshakable certainty the
truth: Islam is not a religion; Islam is totalitarianism masquerading as religion.

Vijay Kumar
Vijay Kumar, a long-time resident of Nashville, recently ran for United States
Congress from Tennessee's Fifth Congressional District in the Republican
Primary. He can be reached atkfcnahsville@aol.com