Banana, very good points.

In the USA, and probably most of western Europe, the politically correct line is that "the vast majority of muslims are non-violent". ANd that's probably true if you never leave the west. However, it's demonstrably NOT true when you look at the religion as a whole.


I'm curious what you mean by this. Do you think that most Muslims outside of the West actively are violent (in a capacity greater than other comparable populations)? Or do you think the support for violence performed by a minority is greater? If I'm not mistaken the polls show the latter, but disturbingly not by much-- meaning, Muslims in the West support killings of non military targets to a disturbing degree. An example would be the polls done on whether a cartoonist that depicts Muhammed should be killed for doing so.

As to your point about whether it's a religion or a political ideology or both: This again is a place that apologists like to hang out. The religion explicitly claims politics as within it's domain. And so you cannot separate the actions of one from the other. Of course that goes for the good and the bad done under the banner of political Islam. It's just that I think on balance it is harm that is done.