"But I genuinely don't feel it appropriately placed on this thread,"
Your opinion Mike - not mine.
Discussing any religious persecution without including the right to put it into context by discussing why religious persecution takes place is an exercise in futility - like having sex while wearing a condom - self indulgent but, in the long run, sterile.
Suppressing such discussion is censorship and in the hands of toe-rags like Keith, become weapons of sectarian hatred and bigotry
He uses such tactics regularly whenever his limited intelligence leads him into a dead end.
He has been warned persistently that his use of "thread drift" is bullying and undemocratic and has been asked to stop it - he persistes on doing it - see his efforts on the WW1 thread.
It wouldn't matter with most people who take part in these discussions, but his insistence on taking proprietorship of every single thread he takes part in, dominating in and insisting on having the last word (on every single one) nauses up open discussion for everybody else.
I know why he does if - he is a thicko Ialamophobe on a mission,
I quite frankly can't work out where you stand in this - you're certainly not thick and, while we've had our differences, I don't believe you to be the all-out bigot he obviously is.
"Currently" this planet is on the verge of a holy war caused by a handful of bigots and zealots like Keith who utilise and manipulate the power that religion - all religion - wields over the many millions of harmless believers who pose no risk to anybody.
Using the behavior of the few zealots to brand all Muslims, as Keith and his ilk do, only adds to the rift.
Keith's support by denial of crimes committed by Christians - no matter how unimportant you or anybody views them, only allows him and his fellow nutters to throw petrol on an explosive situation
Not a world I would like to bequeath to anybody belonging to me.
If we can't discuss all aspects of a subject like this, these subjects become little more than a wailing wall.
Keith regularly uses thread drift - fine to express an opinion, but he openly attempts do stifle debate - in spite of taking any discussion wherever it suits him himself - as he once said when his behaviour was pointed out pointed our "thread drift happens" - only in the case of his objections, it is never really thread-drift, just a convenient way for him to dig himself out of a hole - as here.      
Jim Carroll