Curtis,

>>The only question that remains is "how large is the gap between Islamic orthodoxy and fundamentalism?" I suggest it is not as large as some people think, or hope.
>>JLK
>
>I've met several Muslims in my lifetime and take offense at this statement. The best analogy that I've heard is that the bin Laden view is to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity.
>
>I consider myself to be a Christian, but would take offense if you compared what I believe to the tenets of the KKK. However, there are stronger comparisons between the KKK and the fundamentalist Christian sects.
>
> -cjh

I think that there are many fine individuals who are members of the Islam faith. However, it really isn't as peaceful or harmless a faith as some would want you to believe. Look at the 1400 years of its history. It's factionalized and there are many sects that hate each other and so forth. Not very pretty I suppose.

Actually, Curtis, most folks don't really know a whole lot about Islam in today's culture. I have heard that books on it are flying off the shelves at Amazon. One thing of note is that before Mohammed came along Islam was a polytheistic religion with many gods. The actual history of the origin of Islam is tied directly to the worship of the mood goddess in ancient Babylon, which is why you will always see the moon crescent and star. Mohammed's great contribution was to effectively turn a polytheistic religion into a monotheistic religion, which other than the Historic Christian faith, is quite unusual with respect to the various religions.

There are several resources on the Internet that I've been looking at, both pro and con vis a vis Islam. www.danielpipes.org is a 'con' resource and www.danielpipes.com is a 'pro' resource. I've mentioned www.khouse.org before, which probably falls into the 'con' category. I'd encourage you to see if you can find any as well. Also, you can find the Koran on the Internet. I've read a little of it (been too busy for a lot) and have found it interesting reading.

The difference between Christianity and Islam is that Mohammed is dead while Jesus is alive. Same for Buddha.