If you base the question on taking (literally) passages from the Koran, you must apply the same logic to the Christian Bible or any other religious text.

There are many different types of Christians, Buddhists etc - why is it not obvious in the case of Muslims.

Those Christian groups, seemingly predominant in the USA, who hold extremist views and picket soldier's funerals and call for death of homosexuals are not moderate.

Extremism is the concern and potentially it can be fostered in any belief system or set of values. Violent activity that stems from extreme religious fervour is often fuelled by other factors such as a perception/reality of injustice or persecution.

There are many moderate Muslims living all around the world.

@pelican

You lived in a country where muslims form >15% of the population?

Welcome to the real world of Islam.

@antiseptic

with due respects, Jayb is entitled to his views

dont be like the gays
they want to change the norms to our lifestyle BUT we cannot push back

they can say what they want
do what they want

but when the silent majority pushes back
they cry foul.... discrimination....homophobic...

i dont like such double standards

platypus
Many discontented Muslims have fled countries to experience freedom elsewhere. That is why they leave so they can practice their religion without dogmatic and extreme interpretation of the Koran.

They are in effect moderate Muslims which was the question asked of the creator of this topic.

"cohenite, surely all the religions think the same way?"

Of course. But the point from the studies done on Islam compared with other religions is that Muslims are far more devout and opposed to secular law; and incidentally the only religion using violence in a systemic way as a form of proselytizing.

This inability or unwillingness to separate church and state which defines Islam more than any other religion places ‘peaceful’ Muslims in an invidious position. On the one hand they believe their faith is right and that secular Western society is inferior. A recent CNN report based on the Ipsos MORI research found that Muslims thought Western society was in moral decline. Given the choice between violent acts of the minority within Islam and the condemnation and resistance from the West to that violence Muslims who believe in their faith, and that is the vast majority, will give tacit approval to the aims if not methods of the violent minority. To do otherwise would contradict their faith and their conclusions about the West being immoral. It would also mean that resistance to the inferior moral values of the West and replacement of those values with sharia is bad.

In this respect Lea-Henry is correct when he notes the schizophrenic reaction of Western leaders who distinguish between violent Muslims who declaim they are doing what they do for Islam and ‘moderate’ Muslims on the basis the violent Muslims are not really Muslims.

The violent Muslims are real Muslims; just as the non-violent, ostensible ‘moderate’ Muslims are real Muslims. Where Lea-Henry falls into the same diagnostic error that the politicians do is to assume the non-violent Muslims are ‘moderate’. That somehow they don’t want the same things as the violent Muslims. The evidence says otherwise. Both the violent and the ‘moderate’ Muslims want sharia to replace decadent Western values. The difference is one of method.

Platypus, who said Jayb wasn't entitled to his views? I simply pointed out they're immoderate. What do you find confronting about that?

cohenite, I'm not sure what your point is. There are violent people who profess every religious tradition, from Buddhism to Christianity and everything in between, as well as violent atheists. Some people are violent. some people are anti-social in all sorts of ways. some people believe in weird and wonderful things. Some people are really thoughtful of the needs of others. Some people are devoted to doing their best to make society a better place. Some people like to think about abstract notions of good and bad.

They're still all people, whatever culture they belong to.

This thread is an attempt to particularise Islam as violent, when the Hebrew Torah is every bit as violent if not more so. The wrathful God of Revelations is pretty violent 'n'all.

Did you have a think about my question with respect to which religio-cultural tradition produces the happiest populations? Any ideas?