No Difference between Islam and Islamism

Quillette audio essay:

The Problem Isn’t Islamism — It’s Islam | Obaid Omer for Quillette

Is the real problem “Islamism”—or Islam itself? In this Quillette video essay, writer and free speech advocate Obaid Omer challenges the popular distinction between Islam and Islamism.

For years, Western commentators have used “Islamism” to describe extremist or political versions of Islam, hoping to separate them from ordinary religious practice. But as Omer argues, this linguistic sleight of hand obscures the truth: many practices we dismiss as “Islamist” are in fact rooted in the fundamentals of Islam itself.

A lot of people make this disinction, but it makes no sense. They have separate Wikipedia articles, defining:

Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems.[1] Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism, liberal democracy, capitalism, and other alternatives in achieving a just, successful society.[

Essentially all followers of Islam believe this.

As well as I can figure, the word Islamism was invented to mollify those who are afraid that criticizing Islam is bigoted.

If you believe in one religion, then you do not believe is other religions. That is obvious, and nothing to be embarrassed about.

This guy claims that there is very little historical evidence for Mohammad existing, or for Mecca.

I did not know this: Gooning for Apartheid: How Israel Uses Sex to Whitewash Genocide. I was skeptical, but it has pictures to show.