I'm sure you know this as a Californian, but Americans have the power of voting. I believe that organizations with a lot of money help to influence voting in various (law abiding to completely corrupt) ways.

I never went to church (regularly... I've been a few times) but I can imagine they have facilities for voting when the time comes, so I think that would give churchgoers a very huge edge compared with people who are busy sleeping in or doing other things.

Unfortunately not every country has the privelage of voting (not that voting is always accurate or ... unrigged). That is something that is absolutely great about America and plenty of other countries. America, as well as a lot of other powerful countries affect the world in many ways which causes what I would believe to be a feeling of "taxation without representation". It may not be straight taxes, but there are many consequences of things that powerful countries do that severely affect regions around the world. This is something that has been going on since the late 1800's I'd say (probably even prior to that). I think that a lot of smaller countries (I don't say smaller in an offensive way) have a bit of a grudge on America that probably dates back to the WWI era. With the current technology (which causes some power imbalances) and media (which basically lets people know about all the good and bad things going on) it's harder to start wars as we knew them to be (which in many ways ended with WWII). So if people can't vote in America (or other countries of a similar ilk) and would be completely wiped out in a "traditional" war then I think you see things like "terror". I know it seems sick to say something like this, but that is their vote... and their voice.

While I don't believe "terrorists" are the majority voice, I think they have something very serious to prove. A lot of that probably gets lost in translation and with misleading information from the government and media. While some people (probably including a lot of the "terrorists") feel this as a war based on religion, I'd say it is also well rooted in what led up to WWI as well as the outcomes of WWII (which resulted in all the lines on the modern map).

he called it off, as he should have done.

I just want to say that to me, most religions advocate violence. The major ones here in America, Christianity and Catholicism both have much violence, killing, genocide, torture, and so on. It's interesting to see Christians in a rage about Islam being violent when their own religion has much violence as well. I do not believe there should be such a "my religion is better than yours because we don't advocate violence" when that's simply not true.

It would have been nonsensical. I'm proud to be an American today, as reason has triumphed.

Roman Catholicism is a branch of Christianity, it has three major branches and a couple smaller branches. The other two major branches are Protestantism, and East Orthodoxy. I just wanted you to know that.


Yes, it's true that the influence of Christianity has been one of mixed gifts. We get amazing people like Martin Luther King Jr, and Mother Teresa that have worked through the church, and that have been influenced by it. And then we get some of the less reputable influences from it, such as homophobia, and close to a thousand years of men and women declaring themselves better than the rest of their species, because they proclaimed themselves ordained by God.

The entire world has seen much violence, Heru. I find it hard to believe that the majority of the land on Earth has not at one point in time been drenched in blood. We can blame Christianity for that, our we can blame ourselves for our weakness and do better in the present and the future.

Sure, I definitely agree with you on this. All religions to me are utterly ridiculous. While their holy books have helped many people live good lives, they have also enabled those who would set themselves above the rest of us to commit great acts of evil. The fact is that it only enables the worst of us. The rest is due to humanity's failings as a civilized species of animals.

Of course it would be a foolish crime!

Thank God it did not occur!

This Saint is really ignorant & extremist!

His ideas about Islam is totally wrong!

His wrong ideas are baseless!

He didn't look for the truth of the Islam, he didn't study Islam well!

He confessed that he didn't even read the Holy Qur'an!

So, how can he think of critisizing & burning the Holy Qur'an & he didn't even read & study

it???!!!!!!!!!

Guys, I'm Muslim & I would like to mention & confirm for you that Islam is the religion of

piece & love, but unfortunately some terrorists (like Usama Bin Laden) misunderstood it, they

don't represent Islam!

Do you hear me? they don't represent Islam....they don't represent Islam

Greetings to all of you.....

I also think it would have been drastically ridiculous for it to happen, let alone the thought alone to be publicized when it should have been quickly stiffened. For American media to announce this and then world wide media to snatch at it, people seriously were not thinking about the repercussions.

I totally agree, just like this bigot is not an accurate representation of Christianity. As an American, I feel ashamed it even made it to national news, let alone world news, and I'm also glad the stupid man was brought to his senses.

The Islam that talks of peace and love is based on the satanic verses. Those are the first few suras that Mohamand wrote when he was based in Mecca, current muslims believe he was possesed by satan to have ever written about peace and harmony. Therefore only the stuff written later, when he was in Medina means anything, and that's all about war and confrontation, this is taught in all mainstream muslim schools.

Bin ladin isn't misinterpeting anything, he's following it word for word.

Isn't that pretty much what this entire thread had been?