And I think it a point worth making, in response to all these "It's only a small minority" pleas, that several of the Sharia states -- N Nigeria, Pakistan, parts of Malaysia, Syria -- are democracies; they hold elections, and these administrations have been elected by a majority vote. NB that when Israel did hand back the Gaza area [to which I agree they had no legitimate claim] to Palestinian Arab control, the population expressed their gratitude by overwhelmingly electing a Hamas government at the first opportunity; leaving Israel with a hostile enclave at its heart, which proceeded to bombard kibbutzim within range with ballistic missiles. I regret that I don't find this "only a minority" argument an overwhelminglyly convincing one.

~M~