When it comes to subjugating women and non-believers, how can you even put Christianity and Islam in the same sentence? At it's core Christianity teaches love and acceptance. You can argue about the whole "male at the head of the household" thing but that doesn't really place the women below the man, just encourages them to work together and appoints the male as the leader, not giving him complete control like in Islam. I agree with the notion about the fringe Christians in America, but there is a difference between fringe Christians and fringe Islamists. The fringe Christians aren't decapitating hostages, flying airplanes into building, declaring fatwas on authors, burning down embassies, and blowing themselves up. No matter how you try to twist Christianity, you can't find a way to justify violence against other people. Tough to say the same for Islam. I've seen Jesus Camp and I agree that it is very terrifying. But as far as their indoctrination goes, they aren't taught to hate. I'm Palestinian, so I've seen the hatred for the Jews first hand. When you even mention Judaism around some Arabs it's as if you've just uttered an unspeakable word. Even I had trouble with this growing up. My parents, although unintentionally and very indirectly, instilled in me a fiery hatred for Jews. I can't imagine the children of parents that proactively teach their children to hate.
jeez Some people are oddly fixated about these last ten years as a basis over which religion is more "peaceful". for historical reference, back in the middle ages, Islamic scholars were the most advanced in the world, and they were working really well with Jews, Christians and Buddhists from the Far East. That wasn't to say that there was a perfect fairyland of epic religious tolerance, but places like Moorish Spain in the 1400s were relatively speaking, bastions of peace and tolerance compared to the rest of the world. what else was happening in this time period? Oh, ya know, the Crusades, the Reconquista of Spain (which eventually led to the expelling of all Jews in the country), the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition (which persecuted any Jews that remained), Avignon Papacy...etc. etc.
The Muslims allowed the Christians, Jews and others practice their religion peacefully as long as they didn't cause any trouble and payed a tax called a jizya.
I am no scholar, but to be fair and from what I understand (and was told by a non-Muslim middle east scholar) the jizya was a simple tax code for non-Muslims that was equal to the tax imposed on Muslims as a religious duty. The idea was that you could not force non-Muslims to pay a shariah imposed tax, so there had to be an alternative. The idea seems to be practical enough given that perspective of a nation state with one system for all citizens is rather modern and was not applicable in the age of empires.
The indoctrination thing - I was brainwashed by my parents and the church for many years and didn't start thinking about things on my own until 3 or 4 years ago. You should have heard the hateful things I said about liberals, "intellectuals," homosexuals, the pro-choice movement, people who don't believe in God, etc. Of course the church never openly says, "You need to reject and treat these people as lesser humans!" but the rhetoric very plainly incites such sentiments. I'm just recalling from experience. My youth pastor in high school once said in a sermon that voting or supporting for Al Gore was a slap in the face of God and that he has very little hope for their souls. I'm an impressionable 14 year old, and thinking I'm doing the will of God, I go and tell people in eighth grade that God does not approve of them and if they don't repent, they will go to hell with the rest of the "pukin' liberals." (my dad's favorite phrase). It's taken a long time for me to undo all the vitriolic hatred embedded deep inside my heart and mind, and it's still a process, but I'm getting there. Yes, many sects of Christianity do teach hatred, even if it's not in the form of flying planes into buildings, it's there and it's powerful.
I haven't been following this thread, but if the objective of terrorism is to cause terror, this is the most effective kind of terrorism. Setting random forest fires might not have a high body count, but it creates fear in all of those around. The DC sniper had different methods, but similar effect. Bombing the World Trade Center, flying planes into the Pentagon, or bombing the OKC Federal Building doesn't evoke fear, it evokes anger. (Which may be the goal, I don't know.)
Please, many Muslims would jump at the chance to live here. They know they would be treated with respect and have far more opportunities. If I go over there I probably get beheaded.
And I know many Westerners that JUMP at the chance to go live in the Middle east. What exactly are you trying to prove here?
Have you ever met a Muslim, or ever talked to one in this country? If the source of your information is Youtube and forums, you really need to get out and meet people before having biases formed.
Tends of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Americans live, work and play in the Muslim world. And I am not talking about military people here. Come on, stay informed!
You are trying to place christianity on a pedestal meant for western philosophy and government. All of these atrocities you mentioned happened over and over again in the name of christianity until the state removed itself from the influence of the church. Islam and christianity are no different in how they treat women or unbelievers - just one of those is (generally) restrained by secularism and liberal democracy.
