ProNihil

I have seen many arguments against the invasion of Iraq based upon the debate on whether or not inspections will work or not. What I have not seen are any arguments from a theological standpoint, saying in effect, that the cosmological foundation of Islam demands the death of those whom the Koran would identify as infidels and worthy of death. As I have read thread after thread of diatribes against the concepts of Christianity, I am wondering if there are any good arguments against Islam that would require looking at. I say this in the context that Iraq is a country where theocratic-Islamic law prevails.

I will say now that I have not consulted the Koran due to personal time constraints, and really do not have a personal opinion formed due to that fact. I would like however, to hear from those who have studied the Koran and perhaps have come across any widely held theology (amongst muslims) that state that infidels (those who are not muslim) are deserving of death.

I am open to correction here, but it seems at a glance to be that if a group of people had the widely held view that us non-muslims were deserving of death, then since Iraq is a muslim country, that there could very well be a threat there. Does this make sense? If not, then why?

Enai

I will only answer to this, not the rest of your post. Iraq is a secular country, not an islamic one. Hussein is the secular, not the religious leader. The fact, that certain religious groups do oppose him and are thus persecuted, doesn't change this. He persecutes them because of their opposition and no because of their belief (that still being no justification for gruesome violence, but it's secular violence). Also, the fact that most Iraqis are in fact muslims doesn't make it a muslin country any more than the majority of christians in the US makes it a christian nation. I think that the Iraqi people don't care much for the US, but if they're bombed into starvation* again, well, that would be grounds for hatred, don't you think? Still, even if they hate the US, how would they get there? Starving people can rarely afford airplane tickets.

* During the first war against Iraq, it's infrastructure (water plants, power plants, streets, bridges) was so devastatingly hit that an estimated 1 million people died of starvation. Even more are in poor health because of bad nutrition and lacking healthcare. The fact that goods which are imported (like food and medicine) mostly don't reach the population (because of corruption) doesn't help, but still the overall situation did deteriorate very much since the invasion of Kuwait. And I think this Invasion wasn't the fault of the Iraqi victims (Saddam not being elected).