IS: "Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is the religion of fighting"

[ReptilianPeon]

The table is interesting because it shows that in some countries more people support Sharia than support the death penalty. That's odd, because death penalty for apostasy is part of the Sharia. Lots of people who like to pick and chose what they believe or refuse to acknowledge the barbarism their religion promotes.

[Hatshepsut]

I think most of us here would agree, that support for Sharia law, and death for apostasy, aren't 'moderate views'...fuck these people who try to downplay how much of a problem these views are for the rest of the 'civilised' world.

While death for apostasy is hardly moderate; it is a minority preference among Sharia supporters. Muslims vary on what Sharia is to begin with. A substantial minority thinks Sharia is man-made, though this may not affect their support for it. They vary on whether it should be law of the land, and if so, whether it should govern non-Muslims and whether traditional penalties should be imposed. I agree that Political Correctness sugarcoats the problems Islam has in reaching accommodation with the modern world. This religion has the potential to generate a major crisis in the international system. That's not inevitable, but recent events suggest the risks are rising. The Pew report is fairly comprehensive.

Pew 2013 Islam/Politics/Society: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-w...-overview/

Even if you're going to argue that most Muslims are peaceful, the ideology isn't...It's a political ideology...

It is important to separate the ideology from the behavior. The vast majority of Muslims in fact aren't violent, and unlikely to commit a religiously-motivated assault during their lifetime. Ideology influences tolerance for violence as well as probability of engaging in it. For instance, domestic violence occurs behind closed doors and Islam grants considerable autonomy to male heads of households while in their homes, and discourages women being unaccompanied in public. The testimony of a woman is devalued to "half" that of a man's. True religion-state separation isn't even in the foyer yet. Two ends of a spectrum get analysis in

Cochran 2009 Women & Law: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/~/media/Fletch...es%202.pdf

Nonetheless, though Kenya and Lebanon have no domestic violence laws, Morocco does, and Saudi Arabia adopted one in 2013. Tolerance for violence isn't unlimited in any religion!

DV Laws in Huffpost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/08...18784.html

Muslims in the West have their own tack, considering themselves persecuted but also interpret chastisement (p. 204 below) within a rubric of gradualism (p. 207) whereby they assert the Quran and other sources recognize that society changes.

al-Hibri 2003 on DV in Fordham Law: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcon...ontext=ilj

Basically, Islam began in 630 CE with war; this history differs from Christianity's and has affected developments. Attacks like the Karachi bus massacre over doctrinal liberalism aren't hopeful omens to me. It's not hermetically sealed from new information, however. Only time will tell.  

May 13 Attack on Ismaili community, BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32738171