Antiseptic old son I was in part jesting when I said you need to read more history but your subsequent comment showed I was spot on.

You talk of 'slavery" as if it was a christian practice.Are you completely unaware that the biggest slavers were the Islamic empires.Then you go on to talk about "territorial aggression" as if Islamic countries were the victims.Please have a look at how islam came to expand over the asia and north africa

Please old son no more comments before you do a bit of research.You embarrass yourself

"Actually, old son, Islam was the most enlightened religion..." says Antiseptic.

Enlightened religion is an clear oxymoron.

"Islamic terrorism is a very real challenge to our way of life." yes, however, the most insidious threat is due to creeping Islamisation which is aided and abetted by professional multiculturalists.


Antiseptic,

"It never ceases to amaze me that people are so willing to blow smoke out of their nether regions in public." Yes, indeed.

I can only agree with KarlX's comments, do you think that the conflict started with the Crusades?

"Islam was the most enlightened religion in the world for a very long time," --when was this? Islam's so-called "Golden Age" was mainly parasitic on the existing Greco-Roman culture in those areas conquered by Moslems and sustained by Christians and Jews, islamic contributions to science and technology are negligible.

Islam was a militaristic, totalitarian ideology from its invention in the 7th century. Moslems destroyed Greco-Roman civilisation in the ME and North Africa and attacked France, Italy and occupied most of the Iberian peninsula. Moslem pirates from North Africa and Ottoman Turkey took nearly one million Europeans as slaves ( including Britain and Ireland) and transformed the Mediterranean from a peaceful highway to a source of terror for Christian Europe. The decline of Greco-Roman culture in Western Europe was due more to Moslem attacks than the so-called barbarian incursions and those attacks continued for a thousand years and only ended when Europeans gained an overwhelming technological advantage over torpid Islamic culture.

The Crusades were a counter attack to Moslem incursions in the Byzantine Empire.

You're ignorant of history, not KarlX.

For your enlightenment, I recommend Joseph Hogarty's podcast "Europe-from its origins".

Of course the statement that “Islam is a religion of peace” is complete nonsense. However, I approve of politicians making such statements.

It helps prevent the xenophobia which is endemic in all societies expressing itself in attacks on Muslims or others who may be identified with the Muslim inspired atrocities even though they are not Muslims. Sikhs wear turbans and are dark skinned. They have been attacked.

http://www.sikh24.com/2013/08/he-attacked-us-because-were-different/#.UgA-p8N--FE

Another reason to deny the obvious connection of Islam with violence is that we are in the habit of denying the connection of religion with violence in regard to Christianity. Missionary religions which claim to have a truth denied to others are fonts of violence. Jesus is called the ‘Prince of peace’, and Christians claim they are motivated by love. In reality Christianity has a lamentable record of violence expressed in crusades, pogroms, massacres of Christians of different brands and of Jews, wars of the Reformation and in conquest to spread the faith. Christianity has been spread by violence. Richard Fletcher wrote “The Conversion of Europe from Paganism to Christianity: 371-1386.” With the exception of Ireland all countries which became Christian were subjected to violence to achieve that end. eg. In France Charlemagne gave the pagan Gauls the choice of Christianity or beheading. In 1386 Lithuania became Christian after being subjected to a series of Crusades by the Christian Teutonic Knights. Although most Christians are peaceful and the religion has been tamed by the secular state there are still outbreaks of Christian violence. I saw in a US bookshop a book supporting the Iraq War as bringing Iraq to Christ. Some Christians have bombed abortion clinics and murdered people working there. However, that is no reason to persecute peaceful Christians.

Many, if not all religions, have inspired both peace and war. John Ferguson in “War and Peace in the World's Religions” examined 15 religions including all the most prominent ones and they all elements which encouraged violence.

By stating “Islam is a religion of peace” politicians have protected our resident Muslims and have avoided a painful scrutiny of our own traditions.

It's difficult not to smile as one set of humans seeks to demonise another.

Homo Sapiens practices the most exquisite savagery whenever it is driven to it, on many species, and on its own in particular.

All it needs for truly spectacular savagery to unfold is a psychological rallying point, one for which religion provides a most suitable marshalling ground.

Human's practice group-think extremely efficiently....and this is where our penchant for violence and territorialism finds its most verdant ground....where our fears and insecurities can be transformed into a faux morality to give impetus and legitimacy to our actions.

Poirot,

Oh jeez, you've assumed the moral high and started writing platitudes, do you have a postgraduate degree in " Cultural Studies", "Comparative Religion" or "Multiculturalism" perhaps?