Why do Atheists defend Islam?

[CapnAwesome]

I don't know how you think it can be mainly political in nature and yet separate from Islam. Islam (Not all of them!) is a political system as well as a religion. There was never meant to be a separation of Church and State in Islam and in the early days there certainly wasn't. You guys always talk about it like Muslims (Not all of them!) just happen to come from these conflict areas and that Islam itself has nothing to do with it. That's just plain wrong. While some Muslim countries have separation of church and state, Islam has influenced the politics and culture of these areas for hundreds of years. It's not like they grew up somehow separate from one another and Islam and Muslims (Not all of them!) are just unforunate to have shitty cultures/economies/etc. Islam is essential to all of that and to act as though it isn't is pretty mind boggling.

So riddle me this. Do you think the 30 years war was purely religious in nature? Do you think the crusades were?

That's why I urge you to learn some history. It's multifacetted and there are many aspects you obviously fail to understand. That's why some of you always come over as ugha, ugha, Islam bad, muslim bad.

I for one would never make the claim that any of the so called religious wars, christian or muslim, was purely motivated by religion. Christians were butthurt when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, but Mehmed's motivations weren't religious in nature. He just wanted a strategic point for his growing empire. Same goes for the later Osmanic inavsions of Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Religion was used as tool to gather as many troops as possible, but to take the example of the Osman empire, the actual rule was pragmatic and not in any way compareable to what ISIL stands for. Christians as well as jews could rise to high ranks in the administration.

Same goes for the old Islamic realms, who waged wars against each other, rather than turning towards the West, which, for a long time didn't hold any appeal for them. Other than the gothic territories in Northern Africa, since they held rich farmland as well as other valuable resources.

The list could go on, but let's leave it at that. Suffice to say that not even Urban IIs call to the first crusade was an entirely religious endeavor. It was a spontaneous call to arms after he had travelled to Clermond Ferrand and had witnessed Europe falling into a deep state of unrest, with christian dominions waging war against each other. He saw the call for a crusade as a uniting factor to remove some pressure from the kettle.

As I said, get some history lessons and look a little bit deeper than the paint on the surface.

It doesn't have to be 'purely' religious in nature to have the religion be an important component. Also the fact that you think my argument (which you didn't even respond to) boils down to 'muslims bad' maybe shows that you are only capable of analyzing things from one point of view. Listing a bunch of historical events (all of which I'm aware of) and ignoring peoples points doesn't make you somehow more knowledgeable on the subject, it just makes you look like a pseudo-intellectual douche. I don't know why I even bother because it's always the same with you.