Radio talk show host Jody Hice told members of the Coweta Tea Party that Islam, in its most complete form, isn't deserving of First Amendment protections because it is not just a religion.
"When you talk about Islam, you are talking about totalitarian way of life. You are not talking simply about a religion," Hice said.
Instead, it is "a totalitarian geopolitical system that has everything within it. It has its own financial system, it has its own military, it has its own government, and -- yes -- it also has its own religious component," Hice said at Tuesday's tea party meeting.
"The whole picture of Islam is not just a religion. It is an entire massive geopolitical system," Hice said, and "its intent is to take over the world, to dominate the world."
Hice hosts "The Jody Hice Show" and is a Southern Baptist preacher. He ran in 2010 for the 7th district U.S. Congress seat from Georgia, and sparked some controversy with his campaign billboards.
The billboards asked "Had enough of Obama's change?" with the "c" in change replaced by a Soviet hammer-and-sickle symbol.
Hice was also one of more than 30 preachers who endorsed a political candidate in 2008 as part of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," an event designed to challenge the IRS's prohibition on political activity by non-profit houses of worship.
Several years earlier, Hice and others became involved in Barrow County's battle over the right to have the Ten Commandments posted in the county's courthouse. Hice is the founder and president of Ten Commandments -- Georgia, Inc., which funded the county's legal expenses in the fight.
Hice told the standing room-only crowd that there is an important distinction between many Muslims and Islam.
"Our general concept is a Muslim is someone who adheres to Islam. That is true to an extent, but that is not the whole truth," Hice said.
There are some religious Muslims who follow the five tenets of Islam but don't subscribe to the entirety of what is laid out in the Quran, he said.
"Now those individuals would be included in our First Amendment" protections to 'worship as you want to worship,'" Hice said. "The problem is for those others who embrace all of Islam."
"That has not always been as huge of a difference as it is now," Hice said. "The problem is radical Islam."
The "five pillars" of Islam are: testimony -- that there is only one God and that Mohammed is his messenger, prayer, fasting, charitable alms giving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, or "Hajj."
Hice said that, in its entirety, "Islam is about totally destroying our Constitution, destroying western civilization and exchanging it with Islam... it's a totalitarian system, the purpose of which is to dominate and to rule individual lives."
"Islam is counting on our ignorance to let this stuff keep going. They are counting on us believing what we hear, that Islam is a religion of peace," Hice said. "If you embrace Islam, it is not a system of peace. It is a system of dominance, a system that controls every area of your life," he said.
Hice also talked about Sharia law. He claimed it is "something that is rapidly changing our lives already."
Hice said he is aware of 19 different cases, in 12 states, that involve Sharia law in the court system.
There have been "honor" killings in the United States, he said, usually of fathers killing their daughters.
Under Sharia, Hice said, "the parent has the right to murder their child because the child leaves Islam, and so they call it an honor killing."
He also mentioned a New Jersey case in which a woman sought legal protection because her husband was beating her. The judge denied her that protection, saying that under Islamic law it was the husband's right to treat her that way.
"Fortunately, that particular case was overturned at a higher level," Hice said. "Why are we even dealing with this in America?"
The Quran was essentially written in two parts, one earlier, from Mecca, and one later, from Medina. "One part (the Meccan suras) is the religious tenets. The other part deals with the kill the infidel and all the other things," Hice said. "Those who embrace the entire... Quran are Islamists. They are radical. They are out to destroy western civilization with everything the Quran teaches."
Hice also spoke about the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR -- the Council of American-Islamic Relations.
CAIR was one of 275,000 U.S. non-profit organizations to recently be stripped of non-profit status by the IRS for problems with filing paperwork.
Hice claimed that the organization "refused to turn in some forms to the IRS -- fortunately at least somebody had the guts to say 'well, you're no longer tax-exempt,'" Hice said.
Hice said CAIR has been investigated and has been found by the FBI to be a terrorist organization.
The Muslim Brotherhood are Islamists, and are now taking over Egypt, Hice said. He said that in Virginia in 2004, there was a raid on a man's home who was an operations official for the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Hice said the raid found "all kinds of stuff," including a "five-fold plan for taking over America."
CAIR was also named in 2007 as an "unindicted coconspirator" in a federal case related to funding of the Palestinian terror organization Hamas.
Hice said that both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood are active in the United States. "You see them in our court system having red carpets rolled out" and being given positions of prominence, he said. He said two members of the Muslim Brotherhood were given high-level security positions with the U.S. government.
"I wish I could remember" their names, Hice said. But he usually can't pronounce Muslim names anyway, he said.
Hice's presentation was light on specifics and references. Though he mentioned the New Jersey case, he didn't cite any cases by name. Hice also didn't quote any specific passages from the Quran.