Christians hating blacks, Jews and Indians is something that those particular Christians might do. It doesn't really have anything to do with Christianity itself, and if there are some Christian religious leaders teaching this then clearly they are a miniscule minority, so why even bring it up? The beliefs my Arab friends hold, on the other hand, are really quite mainstream islamic beliefs. You can keep dodging and running from this but the truth of will stand. You can keep claiming that this is "twisting" the 'real islam' (which you know all about, right? Yeah right), but when such views are held by a great majority of a religion's practitioners, don't you that maybe, just maybe, it is 'mainstream', rather than 'twisted'? I understand this reality may not be particularly pleasant to you but it is reality. How do you combat that, you ask? Well, reform, obviously. As you rightly mention, Christianity doesn't have a squeaky clean history itself, but only a true moron would claim the practices and attitudes of Christians today are the same as those responsible for the Inquisition. Christianity eventually was reformed and refined to what we have today and even though I'm not religious, I would agree that Christianity does much good for the world. See? It doesn't require "killing all of them"? That's absurd. Why would you even mention that? Or being "equally fanatical"? Where have I ever suggested that? But sure, it does require employing 'violence' (ooh ahh, oh no!) where appropriate. And gee, I don't know about you, but I think when someone makes it clear to you, in word and action, that he wants to terminate your ass, then yeah, responding in kind tends to be appropriate.
I wholly agree with Islamic reform, and we should be funding Islamic reformers who have a more evolved interpretation of Islam. The problem of course, is that the poor and disenfranchised, where the negative aspects of hate spreads, where a demon is needed to attack, a.k.a., America, gravitate to angry religious leaders, rather than quiet peaceful loving people offering acceptance as the way. The poor hate the rich, the weak hate the powerful, this is new? This has nothing to do with the prophet Mohamed though, it has to do with human nature and the perversion of religion by those with political agendas. The solution? Education, sharing the wealth, bridle capitalism when it tramples the poor in its wake, etc.
Actually, in war if you see an enemy soldier, and he hasn't surrendered, you can kill him (from a distance or not). And this enemy is one who, if he escapes, will continue to lead plans for large scale killings of civilians. Nothing wrong with what they did!
OK, so let's say Mohamed has, over the centuries, been misinterpreted. Fine, then they are following the teachings of those who wrote the books for the religion from the early days to the letter, at least if indeed that what has been described about the books is accurate. What you are arguing over is far from the central point (its practically semantics) that he was making, even though it is also quite a bit of a reach (oh everyone who ever recorded the history of Mohamed's teachings is wrong, and every translation has been tainted, and alien devils have conspired to cast Mohamed in a bad light, blah blah blah).
Well, there was no way that propagandist, BS articles like this crap weren't going to be printed as soon as we ended up in conflict in the Middle East. Anything that happens there, all those who hate Jews and see vast conspiricies everywhere create or flock to these wild fictions! If we end up playing any kind of hardball with Iran to get them to stop their nuclear program, the same thing will happen, and on and on and on!
My experience as well. And after 9/11, when Muslim community leaders were speaking out in the US, Muslim organizations were speaking out, and the press was interviewing these people, nearly all of them excused the actions of the terrorists, at least partially.
My issue is with men who pervert religion, not prophets of God. I agree 100% that what the terrorists do is wrong, even though I can understand their point of view. I have never hit a woman, even when I was married, although I fully understand the emotions that drive men to hit women. What bothers me, is the position that the one side is absolutely right, and the other side absolutely wrong. In an area of gray matter, especially when it comes to politics driven by religion, I find most of the time both sides are equally at blame for these long running conflicts. We are hardly neutral and objective, which is one of the reasons that the Arabs have a hard time trusting us. Why don't the Swiss create a "roadmap" to peace? So we are not neutral, and the prevailing attitude is that when something happens in which Israel could be viewed as practicing terrorism, they are supported without question before the facts are in by most Americans. We are in a sense brainwashed to a particular point of view, rather than susupending judgment until all the facts are in. I believe the USA should view Israel in a more detached light, fully understanding both points of view. It is for sure that both sides are emotional, both sides are fully engaged on that level, and both sides are unwilling to compromise much. Both sides are also coming from religious beliefs about who "owns" the Holy Lands. It is our job, only because we have the power, to act in a manner that is free from the influence of guilt, money, power, and history to act judiciously. Like so many Americans, I was brought up to think that Israel could do no wrong. On further examination, looking at both sides, I see their purity is less than expected. I have a hard time supporting someone just because they are "less wrong."
Actually he pays lip service occasionally to apportioning blame equally, but then always comes back to laying nearly all the blame on Israel. Remember that these are "wild-eyed" and "crazy" Israelis who manufactured our war with Iraq, and the "Palestinian" terrorists are just poor folks doing what they gotta do.
Honestly, in America, do we hear equal representation of both sides of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict? Do we listen objectivley and dispassionately?