Is Islam a religion or a political theory?

To the extent that it preaches monotheism, embraces the same Old Testament that Christians and Jews do, and even recognizes Jesus Christ as a prophet, it is definitely a religion. Totally unlike Christianity, and a greater extent than Judaism, Muhammad imposed a very rigorous lifestyle upon his followers. Praying five times a day, tithing, dietary laws, fasting during Ramadan, an obligation to pray at Mecca at least once during a lifetime if one possibly can, and strict rules as to social conduct.

It is the most rigorous religion in the world

Muslims pay a huge personal price for their religion and it must frustrate and infuriate them to see "infidel" Westerners having not only a far better standard of living but freedoms that they can barely conceive of. A young Muslim has all the same urges as a young American, but is denied. It is THIS that adds a political dimension to Islam. Pure resentment.

Since both involve "belief" then like Christianity it can be both.

It's clear you haven't studied Islam, as you wouldn't have said this

"Islam does not preach redemption through faith or good work"

and isn't this the same for Christians

"but through blind adherence to Sharia law. " or the 10 commandments?

As for women, how many catholic priests are women ?

Christianity and Islam are both religions , both with faults, don't try and say on is better than the other, and your view of democracy is closer to fascism than islam, if you believe

"We outlawed Communism as a..".

You are a danger to a free and democratic country.

It is a religion. You obviously haven't read the Old Testament. We choose not to follow the Old Testament laws and it is a choice we make as a country. There were times I would have loved to sell my daughters into slavery. (Exodus 21:7) They're grown up now and I'm glad I didn't.

I really don't see a lot of difference.

The penalty for working on the Sabbath is death (Exodus 35:2)

Leviticus isn't any better, stoning for planting two different crops side-by-side, burning women for wearing clothes made from two different animals, eating shellfish is an abomination, etc...

@Cephalopod:

There are 613 "laws" in the Old Testament, 10 of which are the 10 Commandments. The rest are known as the "Law of Moses."

Islam is a religion that is sometimes used as an excuse for violence. The Quran does not say anything about killing infidels. Those surahs are in works that came up to 200 years after Muhammad and are called Haditha. They are not accepted by all Muslims.

But governments like Saudi Arabia use Islam to convince people that they need to defeat the Great Satan, us, and thus it becomes political.

Islam is a religion. There are people who practice that faith here in the U.S. Around 4,000,000 of them. They live by our laws for the most part.

Sharia is law.

They do tend to join their religious views with law.

A good example of why we don’t do that. In this country, we have separation of church and state, for good reason. Writing laws based on mythology is silly. Republicans keep tryin’, though.

Seems almost every Muslim I ever knew before about 1999 was as kind a person as you could meet. Those older guys still are.

BUT!!!

The rest?!

I don' know what happened to the younger crowd but that they might be picking and choosing the scriptures you cited.

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Islam is a religion with political theory(Sharia law).

if you're a Muslim,

you should follow sharia law.

Islamic Political Theory :

http://www.al-islam.org/islamic-political-theory-a...

Religion and Political Theory:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-politic...

It is both, just like Christianity. The Romans used Christianity to rule their empire, and the Iranians are doing the same.

Actually communism as a political theory was not unlawful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yates_v._United_State...

No, it's a religion.

You forgot to include that they worship "Allah" or God. That sort of proves my statement that it is a religion.