Moderate Islam?

[DeistPaladin]

Oh for sure, I agree religion is destructive in all forms in one way or another. But from personal experience i'm just unable to write off all muslims as simply being intolerant, because it's just not the case.

Let me state for the record that I have no doubt that 99% of Muslims don't fall into the Osama Bin Laden category just as 99% of Christians don't fall into the Fred Phelps or Torquemada category. I believe that most Christians and Muslims are good people who want to believe their god is good and their religion is good. Most of them genuinely believe that the actions of inquisitors, crusaders and suicide bombers are the actions of those going against the loving, peaceful nature of their own faiths. Most of them gloss over, ignore or have never read the violent and hateful passages in their respective sacred scripture.

Further, I have observed that reading one's own sacred scripture with a critical eye, where hateful or violent passages aren't ignored or glossed over with rationalizations, is the surest path to atheism or otherwise breaking free of their faith. Most ex-Christians tell a story about how reading the Bible was what led to their deconversion.

When I rail against Islam or Christianity, it's against the religion, not the people. The people are the same as I am, just suffering indoctrination, and these are the people we are trying to set free. Even the most zealous among them should be pitied, not hated. And I agree they shouldn't be "written off". Today's Islamo-Christian could be tomorrow's George Carlin or Aron Ra.