quote:It's the god Allah, his prophet, Mohammed, his book, the Koran vs The god Jehovah, his prophet/messiah Jesus and his book the Bible.
Please, go on. In the name of Allah, let us further polarize the world and continue the bloodshed. Or do you really believe that arguments of this sort will produce any other results?
I'm all for the free dissemination of information... but it bothers me when said information is employed in the service of an us-vs-them mentality. You'll notice that I didn't object to any of the facts in your post, but to the way you chose to summarize them: emphasizing the differences instead of common threads. I take issue with your placing the blame for conflict entirely on Muslim leaders, however. I am well aware that the spread of Islam was at times violent, and that some of today's Islamist governments are among the most oppressive around, but history includes myriad atrocities on the part of each religion, as well as a whole lot of state-enforced ignorance and prejudice in the name of God. Additionally, I don't at all believe that our tradition of tolerance can be credited to the prevalence of Christian faith here. Conservative Christians have traditionally opposed progress in that area. Truth, not tolerance; righteousness, not rights....