[freefly]

Good essay...thanks for posting it.
It describes the tenates of Islam as I found them when I did my little bit of research.
All too many want to brand Islam as an inherently violent religion.
Of course, those that do tend to ignore the parts of the Christian Bible that promote the same sort of thing.
They also forget the evil done in the name of the Christian religion:
the Spanish Inquisition and the attempted genocide of the American Indian
are two things that come immediatly to mind...the list is certainly longer.
Granted it doesn't happen now the way that it used to, but no religion
has clean hands when it comes to violence done to the "unbelievers" in it's name.
Demonizing the practitioners of an entire religion is what the Taliban has done.
We don't need to get down on their level.

[Ditto]

Of course, those that do tend to ignore the parts of the Christian Bible that promote the same sort of thing.

Which parts are they?

[dr_who]

..but one should not blame Christianity for what dishonest or hopelessly deluded individuals have done to misrepresent Christianity. Probably the case with a number of other religions as well.