Quote Originally Posted by 3LB
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But I see Bobstyx's point - we see the old testament and appreciate it for its virtues and don't take it verbatim, at least not everyone. It's scary to think that anyone could read that text and not see it for it is, a reaction to western occupation, just as a lot of the new testament was a reaction to Roman occupation. We don't slaughter people outright in the name of religion, but every time the US has gone to war, we've evoked the righteousness of our God over others. So we're not as obvious. We'd never flog a woman for wearing pants. We don't publically flog anyone in western culture, at least not literally. We have more subtle, entertaining ways of stealing people's dignity called reality TV. But at least we limit our hysteria to people who ask for it...mostly.

It isn't hard to see how an Islamic culture, who is familiar with the Bible, could come to the conclusion that the Bible might be the basis for US policy in the middle east. The US seems to have unflinching, dutiful support for Israel - hey, even if you don't believe it, you know the rest of the world thinks it.. That plays right into a lot of that extremist rhetoric.

I myself, don't think all muslim people buy into that stuff, because they enjoy a fair amount of wealth and technology themselves - Bagdad was a very modern city at one time, hell, Muslims invented most of our modern engineering and mathematics. I think the extremists just get the most attention. Its like what if Quakers were gun toting zealots or something...luckily, we don't any such contingencies in our society... But I guess sometimes it comes down to pickin a side...everyone's gotta picka side, whether we like it or not.

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It's ironic that for a thousand years, Islamic realms were, in practical terms, far more tolerant of their Jewish and Christian residents than contemporary Christian realms were their religious minorities.