" Jim; I agree entirely with that postulation"
My earlier post seems to have gone walkabout.
"I say again that IMO Islam is one with the greatest potential for harm in its teachings"
I don't know enough about Islamic teaching to dispute this one way or another and I very much doubt if you do, but you are welcome to enlighten m on this.
I very much doubt if it can match something like this in any of it's teachings.
EVIL BIBLE QUOTES
And there's plenty more where they come from.
The use and misuse of Christianity for persecution and gain has as long a track-record as any other religion from the three centuries of the Inquisition and the Crusades through 20th century Ireland, taking in the blessing of bombs and Hitler's Pope Pius XII who nodded thousands of Italian Jews through to the German death camps.
Closest to home and most recent is the two decade long bloody warfare in Britain over a country which was deliberately partitioned on religious grounds for political and economic reasons.
We are at present trying to get our heads around a massacre of over 2000 people over a territorial dispute prompted by an aggressively expansionist policy heavily influenced by claims of a 'Chosen People' demanding their God-given 'Promised Land'.
Put any religion at the disposal of politicians or financeers, or give any church any influence beyond spiritual guidance and you have a toxic mix.
I know for a fact that whatever their background, given the opportunity and the motivation, Muslims are as capable of accepting change as those of any other faith - one of the most recurring pieces of advice given to those moving to countries of other faiths is that the laws and customs of their host nations be obeyed and respected.
It is no coincidence that the problem Muslim areas are or recently have been run by feudal despots, often backed by the West out of self-interest.
The rise in power of Isis can be traced directly back to Syria, and the cynical failure of the West not to become involved until it was too late - little to do with religion or belief.
Jim Carroll