Pat Robertson: Islam isn’t a religion; treat Muslims like fascists

By Daniel Tencer

Conservative commentators are ratcheting up anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of last week's Fort Hood massacre, with televangelist Pat Robertson leading the way with a declaration that Islam is "not a religion," but a "political system" bent on destroying all the world's governments.

In a commentary on his show, The 700 Club, Robertson noted that the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre, Nidal Malik Hasan, had come to the attention of authorities prior to the rampage by emailing a radical cleric and trying to contact Al Qaeda.

"Nobody wanted to go after him because of political correctness," Robertson said on Monday. "We just don't talk about somebody's quote 'religion,' even if the religion involved beheading infidels and pouring boiling oil down their throats."

Robertson said Islam should be treated like a fringe political movement.

"If we don't stop covering up what Islam is ... Islam is a violent -- I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion, it's a political system, it's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination," Robertson said. "You're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group."

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Pat Robertson was a large contributor to Virginia Governor-elect Bob McDonnell. McDonnell openly spoke against Robertson's claims. See the video here.

I read one of Pat's books, Bring It On. On page 261, he says "Many people are confused about who Allah is. Allah was one of the jinns in existence in Mecca during the time that Muhammad [peace be upon him] was having his purported dreams and revelations that inspired the Koran. Allah is the moon god, and the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon. Allah is not the God of the Old Testament."

As you can see, he plays off of old and misinterpreted stereotypes to get his followers to believe that Islam is not apart of the Abrahamic tradition, but some crazy religion, where Muslims worship the moon and follow a false prophet.

First of all, Allah is the Arabic word for God. It comes from the word Al-Ilah, literally, "The God." If one picks up any Bible in Arabic, they will find "God" translated into "Allah." What Pat is thinking of is the pagen moon-god "Al Laat," who the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told us not to worship. Also, the crescent moon became the symbol of Islam much later in Islam's history and has nothing to do with who we worship.