Okay. So Islam is, in modern culture, associated with not-so-good things. I.e, dead people, terrorism, violence, psychoticness. Sure, this is found all over, but I get the feeling it's not just hype. These people are pissed. So I'm very interested into where you think these harsh ties form.

For example, it's quite clear that Islamic countries are deeply involved in religious wars, violent protests, etc. Take these recent "blasphemous" cartoons, for instance. People are torching embassies, threatening "the REAL Holocaust". I won't go into the irony of the response (heh), but why do you think they're so provoked? Sure, they're offended, and I don't blame them, but what encites the violence? Surely most religions wouldn't respond to a cartoon with such ferocity.

I hear many Muslims, especially in other countries, insisting that Islam is not meant to be a violent religion. I did a bit of research and found that the Qur'an leads to this conclusions in some excerpts, but offers significant verses that state the opposite.

Do you think it's more of a sociopolitical issue? Do you think it's driven by oppression? A lack of communication? Do you think there's some strange genetic deformation that evolved in Middle Eastern countries causing extremely short tempers? :P

I've noticed for sure that it's far more prevalent in predominently Muslim regions. Thoughts?

I wanna know what you think of the whole deal. Anything. Because at the moment, I haven't much of an opinion. My first impression is that it's more related to culture and war-torn environment than faith itself.

Discuss it, s.v.p.

-------
i'm a rainbow too.

Although eventually we got royally fucked, the history of anti-Islam has managed to survive in a predominantly Christian Europe. It is only recently that now, with a slightly more balanced society of cultures, we are losing these ridiculous stereotypes.

The evidence is also clear around European and Middle Eastern Judaism - why aren't Jews seen as bad as Muslims?

Because they didn't fight back. In Germany and the Middle East, non-combatant Jews were slaughtered in their thousands by the Christian Europeans. Evidently, especially after the holocaust, Europeans have a guilt about these atrocities.

However, the Muslims DID fight us for their homeland, and so we don't feel SO guilty about attacking them so mercilessly.

-------
Massive, epic adventure, multi-coloured, multi-layered.
Sort of two/three dimensional Wizard of Oz for the future.

The result is a few crackpot extremists, and a large minority of conservative muslims who dislike the West, but are willing to tolerate it so long as it doesn't provoke anything. This is the intolerance you see bubbling up - people that dislike the West and feel uncomfortable about it lashing out.

However, as the muslim world is developing, islam seems to be branching into absolute fundamentalism and liberalism. Most people take the liberal route. And happily, we are now getting to be in a position where more and more Muslims are tolerant and peaceful. This is a result of development, and also more tolerance on our part. However, things like Iraq do create massive backlashes.

*first 'intellectual' post btw*

-------
Satan Oscillate Metallic Sonatas