England

Oh my God, Phil! (To borrow a religious expression) That was so head on! I couldn't have written it better myself. Not everybody good though, which I don't think was the meaning of what you say either. To me there are bad eggs and good eggs. Not many bad eggs, but those can really make things go foul when religion feeds them. For others, for the extremely large majority, religion is not that much of a problem, at least not today when we can speak our mind without being burnt at the stake for blasphemy. But still, in my mind, a world free from religion and... well, I think there would be less conflicts hopefully.

Well who would you blame then Rosie? I understand that each individual person is responsible for his or her actions but here you have a religion that sees homosexuality, adultery and apostasy as capital offences. Several countries we have diplomatic relations with still execute people for these offences. Take the subject of honour killings. Why is it so prevalent in Muslim families? Can you imagine a father who doesn't believe in any religion killing his daughter because she has chosen to marry someone he disapproves of? We in the west are poles apart from Muslim countries. They are hundreds of years behind us in terms of humanity and civilized values. In Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive!! Religious police enforce strict dress codes in Iran. A cartoon of the prophet causes mass violent demonstrations across the Muslim world and the burning of the Danish flag! People of different religions are murdered all over the Muslim world most recently in Egypt just because they are not Muslims! It is a difficult subject of course but we need to be honest. The trendy leftist tactic of pretending there is no problem with the Muslim community is not the answer. However many good decent Muslims there are the religion is responsible for some dreadful crimes against humanity and a civil rights record that is as bad as anywhere in the world. I find it difficult to contemplate how you can't see that!

Well, actually the largest problem with honour killings are with people from the Kurdistan area (various parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria) where they habit of honour killing (in not any way limited to daughters marrying the wrong person but is also frequently used when it comes to clan feuds) is traditional based and has no religious tie to Islam. They do it for their family "honor" and not because of the religion that they happen to belong to. The biggest problem by far regarding honour killings is among Sikhs/Hindus in certain parts of India where you'll get acid thrown in your face when you turn the wrong man down. It's just that we only have the former kind as refugees as there has been no great need to flee from India due to civil war.

Up to less than 30 years ago homosexuality was punishable by in some cases death in most of the western world. We have only recently learnt better.

When you're talking about Saudi Arabia - yes, they are a major part of the problem, their Wahabitism has thanks to their excess of money infested the world with hate mongers and they have a sad preference to support terror groups as the Talibans to spread their extreme version of Islam. They have over the years spent 100 billion dollars to export their deranged version of Islam and have paid for tens of thousands of mosques all over the world in which their strict Wahabitism is spread, pushing "normal" Islam out. If now everybody would stop cuddling with Saudi Arabia that would be really great.

Don't go down that road please, let us have an open minded discussion in which we can all say what we think. That statement is just as if I would say that because of hard liners like you, that wants to alienate Moslems and eventually remove them from the Western world, you'll cause a polarization that ends in world war three and billions of dead and all because of you. Don't say that just because I have a different opinion on the details of the problem I am shaming the dead. We all want to solve the problem and save lives and to do that we need to cooperate and respect each other's opinions. If this was easy to solve we wouldn't have any terror attacks.

Give em a good spanking,
"The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" now there's a phrase, that is more fitting to be uttered post terrorist attack, express your anger in a loving way, beat a terrorist...........well its more fun and cheaper than buying flowers, lighting candles etc

Oooh, I'd love that approach. Enlightened people like us all know that a spanking solves all the problems. A really hard one of course. No disrespect intended in the matter.

Never argue religion or politics, my Father said, so no argument here ... but the two phenomena definitely seem intertwined and almost go hand in hand. First, lets go with the opiate of the masses. Poor Islam never has had their needed renaissance. Christianity has. So Islam is basically stuck in the 5th century or thereabouts and almost all the advances in humankind since have come from more enlightened areas of the world. I consider almost all politicians phonies and the few I don't probably have the wool pulled over my eyes. Still, there are leaders such as Winston Churchill and Harry Truman able to put politics aside and actually lead their countries to higher depths, showing true mettle in the process. So let me get to what I consider the root of the problem facing the west now. Corrupt liberal media spinning the news and inciting to riot. Legally at that. We in the US used to have freedom of the press but that has plain and simply gone down the drain, thanks to lack of backbone from all of our elected so-called representatives. Worthless self-serving scum. What do you other countries think?

Could you just clarify that first? On the one side you write that media is lying and on the other that there is no freedom of press, or did I misinterpret what you wrote? You still have rather free press in the USA, even if the recent fire from the government has moved you down to a rather embarrassing 43d place on the international list of press freedom, seen as 'satisfying' but on the brink to 'problematic'.

Not to be an ass here, but Islam wasn't founded until the 7th century.

It goes deeper than that. Christianity started out as a religion for a conquered people (the Jew) and spread to slaves. Islam started off as conquering religion. Those facts shaped the stones that those religions were built on.

Glagla: "Could you just clarify that first? On the one side you write that media is lying and on the other that there is no freedom of press, or did I misinterpret what you wrote?"

Not so sure about misinterpretation, Glagla.

Do you consider billionaires dictating ideology to their subordinates "freedom of the press"? That's what has happened here. Do you reside in Sweden or the USA? If you live here you might easily understand the point. The spin and misinformation over the once highly regarded networks and other news media has deteriorated and degenerated to political bias thanks to our 'handlers'. See George Carlin, on google or utube.

"You still have rather free press in the USA, even if the recent fire from the government has moved you down to a rather embarrassing 43d place on the international list of press freedom, seen as 'satisfying' but on the brink to 'problematic'."

"Rather free press" is not, IMO, free press. We do still have freedom of speech but this "hate crime" business has filtered into our society whether we like it or not, which I see as a step toward stifling and repression. As to "fire from the government" and the other statements about some "international list of press freedom",

I'm sorry but I'm totally ignorant concerning this. Who makes up this "international list'? "Problematic"? You got that right, big time. Oh, and just who decided we are 43rd on this list? Tell me from 42 on up, please? Not that I disagree but how about something factual?

Last and least, "Not to be an ass here, but Islam wasn't founded until the 7th century."

I said "thereabouts". 5th century, 7th century, who cares? Little progress if any during that time in the Islamic world and probably little in the Christian world either back in those dim dark ages. You might agree considering your own views on religion, with which you might notice, I have no disagreement.

Really though, check out George Carlin, Gagla. You will truly enjoy this wonderfully witty iconoclast, I promise.

Best,

Wooz