Here's why the "all religious fundementalism throughout history is the same" argument scares me...

If you believe all religious fundamentalism (and its associated violent destruction) throughout history is the same, then it seems to me you have to believe at least one of the following as well:

1) the world has made absolutely no progress over time in terms of human rights, and thus it's perfectly reasonable to assume people will burn other people alive today, because people were burning people alive a few hundred years ago too. Nevermind the fact that many of the world's worst maladies are at just a fraction of where they were in the past (slavery, torture and cruel & unusual executions, etc.).

The world is no more enlightened today than it was 1,000 years ago, and NOONE can/should be expected to act more civilly than people were acting 1,000 years ago.

OR

2) The world has indeed become more enlightened, but ISIS and the more hardcore elements of Islamic extremism are somehow intellectually inferior to you and thus exempt from the expectation to act like rational humans in the 21st century.

If there are millions or billions of people around the world believing either one of these 2 things, I weep for our future.