Big Mick, it's worth remembering that different cultures are at different points along different curves. Christians, among others, have done worse things than anything you've described there.

One thing's for sure: main force is an inefficient, and often counter-productive way to deal with fanatics. To say they deserve no quarter is a logical reaction, but they wouldn't ask any, and they would probably be undeterred even if their fate was to be torn apart by dogs.

Someone above made sarcastic reference to the bravery of those doing the beheading. What of those willing to blow themselves to pieces as suicide bombers in the same cause? Both acts require a degree of commitment so far beyond my comprehension that I would put it close to insanity. But then I tend to go along with Prof Richard Dawkins in seeing all religions as forms of mental illness.

I would not be too concerned about Justa Picker's views, since he seems to live in a very small world, but I am alarmed that they seem representative of views that exist even at fairly senior levels in the administration. In his own way JP is as fanatical as those he decries: I expect he will never open his mind to a rational and pragmatic arguments such as Norton1's. I have always conceded that Justa Picker is a magnificent guitarist, but then even Mozart was supposed to be a bit of a shit.