Nearly 4000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes in Egypt, Torch Church

It's not necessarily the problem as long as the religion teaches tolerance and peace, and as long as all of its followers are peaceful and tolerant. Unfortunately, the latter is not the case with Islam, and the evidence is mounting that neither is the former. That said, you are right that history has shown that most other organized religions are susceptible to that danger as well.

 

The first step is to analyze the root causes.

To do that, first you have to recognize that there is a problem.

As you have already stated, you would prefer that one does not talk about these incidents. People like Mathloom and NMS claim they have nothing to do with Islam. All three of you are basically ignorant and would prefer that everyone else should be, too.

 

I randomly picked one of the many sources that were reporting this on Google news.

 

I wish I had an easy answer to the question. In very generic terms, I would say that education is the key. But how do you educate people who have been brainwashed from early childhood on? And how do you educate people when trying to do so puts your life in grave danger (as is the case in Pakistan)?

I think that the answer depends on where you are tackling the problem. It will take different steps e.g. in Pakistan than in Turkey.

My honest answer - and I am aware that it is offensive to some - is that I think Islamization needs to be stopped in places where it is progressing (like in Turkey, and in the rest of Europe), because the more power Islam gets, the more likely it is that the Islamists at the fringe get more power, too, and that they eventually get into power - and the end result might be the Pakistan of today, or the Saudi-Arabia of today. It is better to have open discussions and arguments with those who are trying to advance Islam NOW when I can still do it without putting my life in danger. Seeing how much anger and intolerance I encounter when trying to discuss these things, I am not surprised that the logical continuation of this aggressive attitude I encounter here is what dissenters are encountering in Pakistan today.

In Pakistan, I am not sure what anyone can do, it just seems that the place is in such deep ***** already.

From what I have learned here on the forum by various posters, including Mathloom and sammy, etc., it seems like Wahhabism is a big problem, as it seems to poison Islam as a whole. How would that problem best be tackled? I think Muslims would probably be in a better position than I am to answer this question. In an ideal world, the leaders of all other Islamic sects in the world would get together and would condemn Wahhabism and its destructive ideas, and would work jointly on a true reformation of Islam. Unfortunately, that is probably unrealistic.

So to get back to your question - what could step two be? I think there are different goals one could look at here. One goal would be to prevent the type of intolerance and hatred that Islamists represent from manifesting itself in the free (Western) world. That would mean that the Western world should stop making concessions to unreasonable and aggressive demands by fundamentalist Muslims who have chosen to live in the Western world, for one. Displays of intolerance and oppression like the Burkha should be outlawed in the Western world. The Western world should also be wary of continued immigration of people who follow a fundamentalist brand of any religion. How exactly this could be done, I am not sure. The Western world should try to engage in a dialogue with leaders of the Islamic world who do not subscribe to the fundamentalist brand of Islam, to jointly find ways to reduce the influence of intolerant fundamentalists.

Now, when looking at the Muslim world right now, what can be done? I really don't know, my hope is that as internet penetration goes up, young people will educate themselves more and will eventually realize that the fundamentalist brainwashing they have received is wrong, and will stop following hate preachers. In places like Turkey or Malaysia, I hope that the secular influence will push back fundamentalist movements, but it seems to be going the other way right now. When looking at Pakistan and Afghanistan right now, I really have no idea...it almost seems like a hopeless situation. Maybe you have better ideas than me. They somehow have to figure it out themselves. Trying to force liberty and secularity on them with military means does not seem feasible.

 

That is what they think - that they are following the Koran.

I don't think all those people are a time bomb. But I think that the larger the overall group, the larger the number of potential recruits for the hate preachers. I think that somehow, Wahhabism needs to be pushed back. I think that reform must come from within Islam, which however seems difficult as the different Islamic sects are already divided as is, so whoever would try to rise out of the mess and try to reform and unite Islam would probably not be respected by the members of a different sect, and would probably be killed quickly, which goes to show that tolerance is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when people talk of Islam. To try and answer your question, what should be done: I think all one can do is try to raise awareness that Islam has been taken over to some extent by people who promote intolerance and violence, and that for one, the Western world needs to acknowledge that and protect itself from it, and secondly, hopefully, reasonable forces within Islam need to rise from the ashes and need to push back those who give their religion a bad name. As the second part is not within my power, I focus on the first part, but I hope that some reformation of Islam will come eventually.

No holy war, no genocide, obviously. I think the solution is first acknowledging that there is a problem. People like Mathloom (to some extent - he is definitely an intelligent kid and there is some hope) and trustme, Hydhypedplaya, adeelsiddiqui, NMS is the best and some others (I think the last four are all relatives and might be representatives of Wahhabism/Salafism, the mosque adeelsiddiqui and Hydhypedplaya go to has been linked to terrorism, by the way) do their best to try to act like there is no problem. They are in denial, and some of them are really aggressive about it. Once people agree that there is a problem that can be traced back to the way the religion is taught in some circles, the next step would be for the people who believe in the religion to reform the religion. Until then, those who do not believe in the religion cannot do anything but shield themselves from the destructive and intolerant elements of that religion, while at the same time engaging in a dialogue with the reasonable elements of the religion.

I was on a phone earlier. I hope this somewhat answers your question.

Now I would like to hear your answer to your own questions. And saying that you personally do not have a problem with Islam is not really an answer, as it does not address the things that are happening around the world. Even Muslims themselves see that there are problems.