Reply #42: This is not about criticizing Islam. [View All]

I am extremely critical of Islam; but that's not the same as being critical of Muslims. One can respect Muslims without respecting Islam. Muslims are not a uniform group: many Muslims (Turkish Muslims, for example) believe in feminism and democracy. Most Muslims who don't speak Arabic don't even know what the Kuran says; they think it talks about respecting one's neighbor, respecting people of other faiths (as long as they believe in one God), and treating others the way one would like to be treated. I've met people like this who became atheists after reading a translation of the Kuran.

One doesn't accomplish anything by calling Muslims names. And I disagree that Muslim extremists are "more lunatic and less fringe." Christian extremists here bomb abortion clinics, kill doctors providing abortions, and pass around the names and addresses of such doctors. They have so little respect for women that they would ban abortions, knowing that this will result in women dying in botched abortions, and ban the HPV vaccine, knowing that women will die of cervical cancer as a result. They think that a woman who has sex outside of marriage deserves to die. I would call this pretty extreme -- and it's not so "fringe", either.