Islam is a peaceful religion

[The Omnissiunt One]

This whole 'bigotry or not bigotry' tangent is pointless. When someone says "Muslims disgust me"... what they mean is that Islam disgusts them. The religion and those who follow it blindly are deemed 'disgusting'. It is not racism by any stretch. It is the religion and those who commit stupidity in its name that are being maligned and discriminated against. Is it generalizing? Yes... but in this case, it is a justifiable generalization. Islam = Bad. Christianity = Bad. We all preach those feelings.

One problem is that some of ya'll tend to take things too literally when, if you'd think about it for a second, you'd know what the other person is really saying. Casual speech shouldn't be taken so literally. Actual meaning is meant to be inferred when someone is speaking casually; e.g. 'I hate Muslims' doesn't mean that I hate every single individual Muslim in the world. It means that I hate the Muslim religion and those who commit stupidity in its name.

That may be what was meant, but clearly quite a few of us misinterpreted what was said. If it was intended to say, 'Islam and its extreme adherents are disgusting', then saying that directly would have avoided this pointless tangent. Were I to say, 'Milkmen are stupid', it wouldn't be interpreted as, 'The action of delivering milk is stupid.' Also, is there such a thing as a 'justifiable generalisation'? It's something worthy of discussion, but surely the whole point of avoiding stereotypes is that they aren't true. Some may be more accurate or widely applicable than others, but, if they were true, they wouldn't be called stereotypes. 'All generalisations (except this one) are false' is the only true generalisation.