"Islam is not a religion. Islam HAS a religion."
Former Muslim turned Christian
@DanBurmawy makes the case that the West has a fundamental misunderstanding about Islam:
"What is NOT a religion is the desire to seize political power to impose that set of beliefs on the society. Communism has a set of ideas. If Karl Marx is the prophet of Marxism, the Manifesto is the holy scripture of Marxism. What if communists today decide to say, 'Well, we are a religion'?
Would you accept that definition? Of course not. Why? Because communism wants to seize political power to impose their understanding, their set of ideas, on the society through politics. Islam has a religious mandate in the Quran to seize political power to enforce their divine law on the rest of humanity.
That is the difference between Christianity and Islam, for example. Christians, we want the world to follow our set of beliefs. We desire them to do so, but we have no mandate to seize power and enforce it on people.
So, Islam is not a religion. Islam has a religion. Islam has a religious component. Just think of your house. You have a kitchen... Your house is not your kitchen. Your house has a kitchen."