Saw this thread and I'm a liberal, so I figured I'd chime in!
I don't defend Islam. I defend the right for a person in the United States to practice Islam as their religion, so long as it conforms to US laws. Just like I defend the right for a person to be a Christian, or a Wiccan, or whatever else. The problem is a lot of people confuse the two stances. I'm not especially fond of Isalm itself. There are a lot of problems with regards to human rights in countries that are majority Muslim.
Yet Islam is not a religion in the western sense of the word.
Islam is a religion that encompasses and dictates everything surrounding self, family, community, and state. It's a holistic religion in this manner, there is no aspect of life from birth to death, from self to government, that Islam does not dominate and dictate man's (mankind's) actions concerning.
The west sees religion through the lens of a personal faith, but that is not Islam.
Judaism is a faith that was national, but it never sought to expand. If you didn't care for the laws and the God, then Israel the nation was a tiny postage stamp of a place. You could move if it wasnt for you. It was national, but that nation was limited in scope.
Christianity on the other hand sought expansion, but it's not national seeking to expand borders. (the error of the Islamification of Catholicism aside) There is no nation in Christianity, it's a personal faith between man and his God. (My Kingdom is not of this world)
Islam on the other hand, is both national and expansionist. It seeks to expand borders through the entire earth, and encompass the earth. This is the design of the faith - national and expansionist, all encompassing.
That takes it out of the realm of an innocent personal faith in a non Muslim country, and into the realm of a potential
political threat to any non Muslim state.
There is a way for Muslims to live when they are a minority in any country. And a means Muslims are to expand Islam within the country. And a means Islam then takes over as/when when Muslims gain in numbers and strength.
This is laid out in ahadith..it's not hidden. This is why and how it takes over entire nations, there isn't any aspect of anything you do that Islam doesn't have laws ruling..
In order to keep Egypt free from Islamic rule, there can't really be a democracy. In order to keep freedom of religion for everyone in Syria, you need a leader like Assad who will keep the sunni extremists at bay. The Taliban and ISIS are what happens in the absense of strong leadership to keep them at bay and they are always there waiting to rise no matter where Islam is. Why? Because of Islam itself.. they derive the faith from sahih ahadith, as sahih as that Quran is, and as much a part of the faith.
That is the Difference. Islam has as close a resemblance to something political like socialism actively working to take over your national politics and rewrite your constitution as it does to someone going to church 21 times a week to pray, and once a week to hear a sermon.
You look at it through the lens of the more individual and personal faith like modern Christianity, but it's not the case. It's a political entity and should be treated as such..