[LeGrande]

I also have a problem qualifying throat-cutters as followers of God, the essential basis of Western religion. The cutthroat Barbary pirates were practicing theft and slavery in the name of Allah. Can one imagine a God who would approve of such behavior?

Have you forgotten the Spanish Inquisition? The Crusades? The opening up of the New World? The Slave trade? Maybe you should go watch the Merchant of Venice.

The People of the Book are more similar than any other group of people.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Have you forgotten the Spanish Inquisition? The Crusades? The opening up of the New World? The Slave trade? Maybe you should go watch the Merchant of Venice.

The Spanish Inquisition followed the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors - Muslims. It was the final act in purging Islam and its collaborators from Spain. This was a reaction to the cutthroats.

The Crusades? This was a reaction by the European aristocracy against the Muslim cutthroats who were coming to steal their property. Seems like a sensible response to me.

The opening of the New World? What's the problem? Are you against emigration?

The slave trade? Just think of it this way. The Europeans saved all those souls from the Muslim cutthroats who sold Africans to them. They saved them from otherwise getting their throats cut like they do now in Sudan.

The Merchant of Venice? What's fiction got to do with anything?