I have nothing against Islam as an ideology. Christians have done similar things over the past 2,000 years. There were some valuable lessons learned though that they are not paying attention to. The first is that freedom of religion is a fundamental right. People should be allowed to worship as they see fit.

Secondly, the only way to guarantee the first is to separate religious ideology from the state. At this point, I am wondering: Did Muslims simply not pay attention and learn from the mistakes of the past or do they think that they can succeed where Christianity failed? What frightens me the most though is that Muslim leaders use the ideology of Islam to influence the oppressed and motivate them to action. Their blind devotion and fanatical mania make them very dangerous, on a potential scale that could rival any of the tragedies of the communist movement.

There is a small community near where I work and I find the average Muslim that I meet to be kind, gracious and courteous, but these are Belgian Muslims and live a very carefree life. Rotweilers can be very lovable and affectionate animals too, but there are times when they just "snap" and the result is a mauling or a death. I am not trying to compare Muslims to animals here, just illustrate a point that, when not threatened Muslims may be fine, but when they get into "jihad" moods, they are more than just a little dangerous. This by itself is not all bad, I mean, you have to be able to defend youself. The problem is, it doesn't take much to put them in the "jihad" mood. They basically call for war, anytime they have a disagreement with someone. Why? Here is the key. Because the disagreement is almost always a theological issue and not a secular one for them. They are willing to fight to the death over some pretty trivial things in my mind.

Here is a good example. In Kashmir, the Muslims are upset that the Hindus tore down a mosque there. Upset enough to burn 50 Hindus alive in a train. On the other hand though, the Muslims in Afganistan had no problem destroying ancient religious artifacts from another religion. Go figure.

In contrast...

In this country not too long ago, some hate crimes resulted in several churches being fire bombed. What did the Christians of those congregations do? Did they go around burning people alive? No, they let the authorities do their job and they built some new churches and got on with their lives.

Which example is "reasonable"?