Augustus
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The problem is you are using Islam to mean the Classical Sunnism that appeared from 1 or 2 centuries AH onwards. It doesn't require membership of a 'breakout denomination', as there have been heterodox beliefs from the outset (sorry for the long quote):
However, it is very noticeable when one looks at the origins of converts who became religious authorities or administrators that a high proportion of them were from the former territories of the Persian Empire and from Transoxania. In part, this is because the population of the former Byzantine provinces converted to Islam much more slowly than that of the eastern half of the caliphate, where the total collapse of the Persian Empire left no prospect of a revival of the old regime. And in part it reflects the survival in east Iran and Transoxania of highly literate elites who had the ability and motivation to become senior bureaucrats and scholars. Good examples are the Barmakids, formerly Buddhist leaders from Balkh, and the Sahlids, originally Zoroastrian nobles from Sarakhs, whose families dominated the top jobs in the Abbasid administration in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. 17 Such persons, once the seat of government had moved to Baghdad, a stone’s throw away from the former Persian capital, oversaw a large-scale Persianization of Islamic culture, especially in such areas as literature, history, and art...
One aspect of Persia that was more difficult to insert into Islam was its religious thought, for it was quite alien to the monotheist traditions of the Near East. Yet given its richness, distinctiveness, and antiquity, it was inevitable that its adherents would make efforts to preserve at least some of its components within Islam. This happened in particular through Shi‘ism and Sufism (Islamic mysticism). Unlike Sunni Islam, which gave preference to book-based knowledge with only limited interpretative powers allowed to scholars, Shi‘ism and Sufism granted a substantial role in the elaboration of Islam to living guides with direct access to God. In the case of Shi‘ism, this meant imams and their intermediaries, 19 and in Sufism this role was diffused among numerous gurus and teachers. This flexibility meant that such figures could adapt easily to local conditions and ways of thought and this facilitated the evolution of a distinctively Persian strain of Sufism. One of its key features is the notion of “universal manifestation”: the divine is everywhere, in rocks and trees as well as humans and animals, and Sufi-minded poets would speak of their divine beloved as pervading existence, “appearing in white and black, in Christians and Jews, in dogs and cats.” Another is reincarnation, both the idea that humans return in different forms according to how virtuous they were in their previous life, and the belief that the spirit might migrate from person to person. Again, this could take a poetic form, as in the verse attributed to Rumi that his beloved appears in different garb, sometimes old and sometimes young, as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, in the image of Muhammad, and as the sword of ‘Ali. Sufism preached that the truth did not lie in external rules and fixed conventions but in hidden meanings and shifting forms, and this flexibility and ambiguity, coupled with a loose organizational structure, made it an attractive receptacle for the Persian religious tradition, and though it was suffused with beliefs from many other traditions similarly seeking a home, the input from Iran constituted perhaps the richest contribution.
Hoyland, Robert G.. In Gods Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
Ironically, by asserting that Classical Sunnism is the One True Islam, you align yourself with the Salafists and takfiris.If you say a Muslim can't really be loyal to America without announcing themselves as a borderline apostate you are assuming it is not possible for a Muslim to consider that their personal relationship with God is the centre or their faith. Such a Muslim can live perfectly happily in a place where they are free to practice their religion as there is no conflict between nation and faith so they can be loyal to both.
Islam is as Muslims do. You can't expect them all to jump through hoops just because you have decided that Classical Sunnism is the Gold Standard and so anyone who isn't a Classical Sunni must identify themselves for inspection to see if they pass the 'good Muslim' test. Many of them do believe they have the right to call themselves Muslims, rather than deviant 'breakout denomination Muslims' you know.
I react unfavourably to anyone who highlights they are 'PhD' to boost their ethos, especially as it is probably in something like divinity rather than the topic he's talking about.
I only managed 1min of the video before it annoyed me too much. It wasn't wrong, just contextless polemic. I read a lot of early Islamic history and "Jihad v Crusades" is not a particularly useful narrative for anything other than religious point scoring. Read the Hoyland book I quoted earlier if you are interested, it's one of the better accounts of the conquests.
