I know those who defend islam have there hearts in the right place

[REP]

56. I defend no religion (other than its right to exist)

In fact, I am highly critical of almost all organized religions - from their tenets to how they are run, despite simultaneously believing deeply in their right to exist and for people to freely believe in them. While there are some individual members of various religions I feel it is proper to criticize, they tend to be either leaders of their particular branches, extreme fundamentalists, or both.

So yes, I think there is much to criticize in the Muslim religion and culture today - and friends from secular and not-so-secular Islamic countries agree (then again, they moved to the US for various reasons). Even if I didn't know so many real, live Muslims who are unhappy, distressed and frightened by what is being done (not just terrorism, but so-called "honor" murders, more militaristic readings of scripture, etc), common sense would tell me that most Muslims - like most other people - don't want constant chaos and death. Like everywhere, people get brainwashed in a way by what they're told over and over again, and we get the absurd situation of two Semitic peoples hating each other to everyone's detriment.

I don't have a solution. All I can do is refuse to hate groups of people I don't know because a small number of people have done unspeakably horrible things. Not hating doesn't mean being unaware; there are some groups that should be monitored whether they're planning to blow up a women's health clinic or a train station.