ThankGodImAnAtheist

Islam, like most religions, occurs in a variety of flavours, in its worst forms it is barbaric and unenlightened viz. the Sharia courts in Nigeria (I saw on the TV recently a construction worker who had been accused of taking a piece of wood from a construction site, he had is hand amputated after a 10 minute trial, in front of teenage looking judge, without any form of proper defence/appeal etc.).

At the other end of the Islamic spectrum are the Mystical branches of Sufism which aims to go towards the Truth by means of love and devotion. Most fall in between but always have the worrying tendency to want to form Theocracies, and then we have the extremist fringe!

CobraCommander

I voted "terror and violence" because that pretty much describes any belief system in a hierarchical society. I dont believe Islam itself causes terrorism, I think they use religion to justify their heinous actions in order to ease their consciences and gain legitimacy within the muslim world. The terror (in my opinion) is caused by the present political system within Arab countries. If OBL was an American, he would be running for political office, not blowing people up.

ThankGodImAnAtheist

There is also the freedom of speech issue with Islam (harking back to the Salman Rushdie affair), that if you publicly say anything that could be construed as insulting against Islam/Allah/Mohammed etc. you end up with Fat Mr. Wa after you.

missus_gumby

Here is a picture of the UK's most famous muslim, one Abu Hamza:



If you are outside of the UK, I'm absolutely sure you would not believe the amount of public praise he preaches for the perpetrators of 9/11, and muslim terrorists in general. And to go lovingly with that, the passion of his hatred for the society he exists in - the society that provides for him and protects him - is almost breathtaking.

Missus Gumby

catalyst

This is pretty much exactly what I was going to say.

Heathen Dawn

A mixed bag. I live in Israel. Terrorism is the daily news. And yet, my best friends at college are Muslims.

Jayjay

One more vote for terror and violence.

In its base, Islam is just a dumber, harsher version of Christianity, but the way it's used nowadays to defend acts of random violence is sickening. I think that an indifferent "well I suppose it's alright" attitude towards Islam indirectly supports the extremists as it absolves the peaceful majority of muslims from responsibility and gives them an excuse to sweep their theological problems under the rug. Maybe a little bit pressure will help the Islamic world to go through a little reformation of their own?

KnightWhoSaysNi

Hopefully, this could be a good start:

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/

She's a very liberal Muslim Canadian, who wrote the book The Trouble with Islam. Her book basically critiques fundamentalist and mainstream Islam and calls for reform.

Here you can see some pics of her with Salman Rushdie and Daniel Pearl's father (Pearl was the American journalist who was abducted and murdered by Islamic fundies in Pakistan).

I'd like to see more people like her, but I get the feeling that they're becoming more of a rarity. Read some of the responses to her book she posted from Islamic fundies and you'll know what I mean...

Jason

Gothic_J

its another religion, with all the misery that entails. does far more evil then good.

Triple Six

Definitely terror and violence. Easily the most backward of the major religions. You would be hard pressed to mention any useful discoveries and benefits for humanity that developed first in islamic society in the last 400 years.