As a Western atheist living in a Muslim country, perhaps I can reassure you: yes, you're okay. There isn't a giant Muslim horde lurking below the horizon, eagerly waiting for the day you let your guard down. Radical Islamists tend to be more isolationist anyway. The stated objective of Al Kaide is not to invade the West, but to remove Western influence from the Middle East. The first thing the Taliban did was close the borders, as did the Iranian Revolutionaries.
I don't regard any religion as peaceful (with the exception of Zen Buddhism, but that's more of a philosophy), there is a fair amount of superiority and self-justification for aggression in all of them. But you seem to believe that Islam is somehow uniquely able to influence people in a way that other religions can not. Again, the vast majority of Muslims are in no way different to the vast majority of believers in other faiths and atheists: they go about their day worrying about their job, school, relationship, that funny noise the car has started to make, why Windows has crashed again at the bank; and are just trying to get on and make do as best they can. The actions of a minority of extremists should not be used to incite prejudice against the much, much larger group.
I'll say it again: you (not you personally - you as "Westerners") are going to be okay because you do not generally appear in the thoughts of the vast majority of Muslims, even radical ones, in any way, shape or form. You are just not that important. Your chances of encountering a demented Al Kaide terrorist are way, way lower than your chances of meeting your end at the hands of a drunk driver. Behave accordingly.
I believe that your view is based mainly upon what you see with your eyes, which like the description of the elephant by the blind men, is not inaccurate, and at any rate is what you truly believe.
The thing that you don't understand is how islam works and that contrary to your comparisons with other religions, violence in the name of religion is a deliberate misinterpretation and you'd have a very hard time finding any justification for violence of any sort in the new testament of the bible, which displaces the old testament as the path to follow.
Exactly the opposite with the Koran, which followed in chronological order leads one from a peaceful and inward looking approach during the years before military supremacy, is replaced with the concept of jihad, which is to be put aside anytime military supremacy is not held, only to be revived again once the time appears to be right.
All of this is easy to research, and you take the sources you feel that you're able to vet and read what they have to say. I didn't respond to your post above to Burk because you made me think and when I read fresh input I like to reexamine my own views to see if I need to do any adjustments in order to stay honest with myself about what I've compiled mentally so far.
I'm glad that you're doing well, but hope that you'll keep growing and do the same from time to time - hold your views dear, but with all of your intellect to fall back on, question your beliefs when faced with new input.
If you come out unchanged, then you can feel your convictions all the more confidently, and if you do change your view from time to time, you can also gain confidence in your honesty and feel relief that your thinking is not set in concrete.
These things I do on a regular basis, and any who suggest that I've found what I wanted to find have no idea how far from the truth that falls.
) c) that OBL is still alive.
