>>>>>>or die..
>>>>>>
>>>>>>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8150247/Muslim-pupils-learn-to-cut-off-hands-of-thieves.html
>>>>>
>>>>>Bill, I truly do not get this reverse jihad of yours. You continue to condemn an entire religion of a billion and a half people for the actions of a few. Every religion has its knuckleheads.
>>>>
>>>>Please cite current examples of frequent (daily usually) murders (and other atrocities) of civilians by a religious group.
>>>
>>>In all fairness, we are in about the 13th century of Islam. If you want to compare outrages in the name of religion, take a look at Christianity in the 13th century AD.
>>
>>All well and good except Islam is doing this now. The Koran says that Islam rightfully owns the world and anyone who is not a true believer needs to be removed (or owned or something along those lines depending on translation). Dying killing non believers is rewarded according to the Koran.
>
>Okay, but like you I have read both the Koran and the Bible. Believing either one is literal divine truth could generate real problems. Christianity and Islam, as religions, are more alike than different. They are exclusionary. They have the *only* Truth. You are on the bus, or off the bus - with all that that implies. Biblical Christianity is only less dangerous because fewer people actually believe it and they are only minorities in countries with secular systems designed to keep Pat Robertson from ever being the problem he would surely otherwise be. As individuals they effect policy, but they do not have the power to compel the behavior that their beliefs would imply if followed to a logical ( or completely faith-based) conclusion.
>
>Islam, because of its own history, is the majority in many societies where religion is still taken seriously. Sure, a lot of those societies are as traditional as a small Indiana town in 1920 and just as intolerant of those who aren't on the bus. But most folks aren't aggressive about even the crazy stuff they believe ( or pretend to believe to keep the neighbors sweet ) unless fired up by the real True Believers. Then they join the Klan or Al Quaeda.
>
>It's not an inherently Islamic thing. It is an inherently human thing. True Believers and crazies in our culture are not allowed to actually stone anyone, so they only terrorize school boards and state legislatures.

And in Islam they stone people or for real entertainment they blow up in the shopping mall. There is a difference.

>
>>
>>Now Islam is busy killing people around the globe, and will shortly have nuclear weapons to do so more efficiently.
>>
>>Islam is moving in to civilized countries (big problem for Britain, France, etc). Immigration + preaching to people who have an axe to grind (prisons/slums/etc) ups the number of local jihadists.
>>
>>This isn't the 13th century. This is now.
>
>And like you I take the threat of radical Islam very seriously. But I'd fear it even more if I were one of the millions of Muslims in countries that could come under their control. The hit list for radical Islam is long and the first many million names can all easily be spelled in Arabic.
>
>>
>>>
>>>Look at Ottoman society in the 15th century when Jews felt a whole lot safer in Istanbul than Seville.
>>>
>>>You know I'm not a fan of Takfiri crazies, but I wouldn't have been much of a fan of the Inquisition, Martin Luther (one of history's great Anti Semites), the massacres of the Huguenots, Cromwell's depredations against the Irish Catholics ( on a looong list of such attrocity ) or the Biblical ( and Koranic ) support for slavery, homophobia and misogyny.
>>>
>>>I have no problem with teachings that encourage men to be humble in the face of things they do not understand, or to walk quietly and with compassion in a world that certainly needs it, but when *anybody* thinks God is something in their own image and that they have all the answers written in any book they are to some degree a danger to others.