Not all Muslims are Terrorists!

[CapnAwesome]

It does matter, but I think the question is are they doing it because of their religion or in spite of it? For other reasons? For me it's the former. There are obviously other factors that contribute, I don't ignore them. The middle east for example has been a shithole since the dawn of time, ISIS have very good recruitment tactics etc. But Islam is the main justification and at the heart of these factors. Lots of other things are factors too ofcourse, politics for example. But there's only really one religion you keep hearing about in the news that's causing attack after attack after attack. Problem after problem after problem.

Bringing this back to the OP, is it then unreasonable for people to have a level of prejudice against muslims? To be fearful of them? I don't think so. I don't think prejudices are rational ofcourse, but I don't think they're always unreasonable. But then on the flip side no one has, to my knowledge, ever said 'all muslims are terrorists'. And this is an argument that does come up quite a bit. What people tend to be is just fearful in general (or weary, I don't like the word 'fearful' in this context, kind of like how people say "Islamophobia", umm, I don't think anyone screams at the sight of a muslim, unless ofcourse they board your train with an AK-47).

If Islam (or some other new religion) hadn't come along, the region would be largely Orthodox Christian. It would still be tribal, the women would still be covering their heads. If their political history remained roughly the same (we still deposed the Shah's predecessor, we still supported the rural tribes against the Soviets in Afghanistan, we still deposed the secular strongman ruling Iraq, etc.), you think we wouldn't be having these problems if the region were predominantly Christian?

If they were christian maybe they would have gone through both the reformation and the enlightenment. They also probably wouldn't be using the example of Muhammad to enslave religious minorities around them, as ISIS does. That is a direct out growth of Islam. I'll never understand Atheist Islamophiles.