fad, a la Duggars. Part of the whole homeschooling, home churching, no worldly influences, general kooky stuff. I find it scary and have followed stories of some kids, see Penningtons as an example, escaping and the problems they've had as they try to deal with the outside world and practical things like having no birth certificates. While kooky, I don't consider them dangerous to society while I do find them abusive to their children. They are small in numbers and mainstream Christianity does not advocate this kind of separation which makes sense as the historical Jesus was pretty down and dirty with the people.
Also many conservative Jewish communities, see Lakewood, Borough Park, Kiryas Joel and so on. These groups have always been this way and so it's not as new a thing. And there are sometimes issues that arise. But Jews don't want converts and they're not looking to impose Jewish law on non-Jews.
I acknowledge there's all kinds of groups with all kinds of oddities that I want nothing to do with. I don't want any religion in my government. But I can't dismiss Islam as I dismiss these other groups. Not based on bigotry, based on reality.
It was last January, after Charlie Hebdo that I started researching and learning. What I have learned has caused me to treat Islam differently in my thought process.Until I did research I thought treating Islam differently was crazy. Now I have a very different idea of what is crazy.
This is what I wrote last January when I first came around to this:
