I have a quiz for my fellow DUers... how many riots happen when a Bible is burned?

[yurbud]

53. I'm curious--what was the response you were looking for? Maybe we can agree on some things:

That Muslim extremists are bad?

I don't think you'd get any argument about that here.

The real issue is therefore WHAT?

Issues we might agree on:

• Therefore, do not support regimes that are and export religious extremists. That should apply at LEAST as much to Saudi Arabia that gave hundreds of millions to al Qaeda before 9/11 and who the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 found gave financial support and shepherded a couple of the 9/11 hijackers up until the attacks.
  
  
• Do not use religious extremists as foreign policy proxies like we did in Afghanistan in the 80's, the Balkans in the 90's, and at least during the Bush years (and maybe still now under Obama) we did to harass Iran (using Sunni extremists to harass Shi'ite extremists).
  

Issues where we might disagree:

• Is it worse or any different if a fundamentalist Christian takes over a country and passes a law calling for the execution of gays as happens in fundamentalist Iran? Or if fundamentalist Jews in Israel are part of the political process even though some think the Palestinians are the people God told them to exterminate to take possession of the land of Canaan he had promised them?
  
  
• Do you think the social and political forces that are driving some Muslims to fundamentalism are the same as those driving Christians and Jews to fundamentalism as well?
  
  
• Is there a standard for appropriate and inappropriate involvement of religion in politics that you would apply equally to all religions?
  
  
• Is religion ever the excuse for political violence rather than the motive? Do you think the Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese who conquered South America and the mostly Protestant English, Dutch, and Germans who conquered North America were primarily concerned with spreading Christianity rather than getting their hands on some real estate, natural resources, and cheap to slave labor?
  

Even if we ultimately disagree about the issues in the second set of questions even talking about them would move the discussion from fear-mongering toward realistic solutions and policies.