"The Quran is different from The Bible in that it is not to be taken as allegory or a historical document. It is to be taken literally and unquestioningly as the word of god."

There's a percentage of Americans, of Tea Party activists, of conservatives who disagree with your blasphemy that The Bible is not to be taken as the literal, unquestioned word of their God. Though they're often played for fools, they drive the GOP's agenda every bit as much as the Koch Brothers and Wall Street.

Great move Andre you you take one fact and completely flip around to tar another group. Then you add in the conspiracy of them controlling the whole kit and caboodle. A to be to freaking Mars.

First off you are forgetting certain aspects. Percentage - a couple lone nuts does not make a group. True that can used against us when we argue about Muslims. But in the end the percentages very much outweighs one group versus another. Basically ant hills versus ... well hills. The crazy Christians are the ants.

Next aspect - apples and oranges - Well in the end each religion is different because they have their rules set down by different books - True the Bible can be very irrational and silly but it is tempered with the New Testament and verses that try to preach forgiveness and faith. Where the Koran is considered more violent and the faith it wants borders on compulsion and strict obedience.

Perspective - if I ever met a really over the top bible thumper who preached such strict adherence of the Word of the bible, I would likely say is that person who be a minority and very unlikely popular or well taken by the rest of the community. Really do you thing Fred Phelps gets invited to a whole bunch of dinner parties. Here is the aspect and perspective is if the person was Muslim and following the Word of the Koran - they will very likely be held up as a paragon of virtue to emulate.

In the end a Muslim theocracy frightens me a hell of a lot more then a Christian one.

"There's a percentage of Americans, of Tea Party activists, of conservatives who disagree with your blasphemy that The Bible is not to be taken as the literal, unquestioned word of their God. Though they're often played for fools, they drive the GOP's agenda every bit as much as the Koch Brothers and Wall Street."

Not only is that beside the point of the thread, it's not even true. It's a straw man argument, and one that leftists trot out to fire up the base and frighten the kids. The Dallas Morning News has this article about pollster George Barna, who polls Christians on issues like this. Over the last twenty years, Barna's polls indicate that the percentage of adult Christians who believe in concepts like absolute moral truth and the literal existence of Satan has held pretty steady at about 9%. And I claim that the number of people who believe in Biblical inerrancy, that every word of the Bible is directly from the mouth of God, is a small percentage of that percentage. My guess is it reduces to about the same number of people who vote for Ralph Nader in every Presidential election.

This whole leftist tripe about Christians are every bit as bad as Muslims is defamatory bullshit. And the Democratic Party is far more in thrall to its extremists than the Republican Party is. Consider: did Pat Robertson ever hold a position in the W Administration equivalent to the position that Van Jones held in the Obama Administration?

Getting back to the original point: Prior to 9/11, I used to think what Stern thinks, that Muslims would eventually Americanize like other immigrant groups have. But after 9/11, I started studying it myself, and I came to the same conclusions as Amy and a lot of other thinkers: that Islam is at its core a totalitarian belief system; it contains fail-safes against reformation, and any attempt at reformation would wind up having to discard most of the religion's core teachings.

There's a big difference between the Christian Reformation and any possible reformation of Islam. The Christian Reformation was not about drastically altering the religion; rather, it was about getting back to the original principles in the face of a Church that had gone way off message. I'm not seeing many Islamic leaders saying that Islam has gone way off the message of the Koran. (And the ones who do say that tend to disappear.)

how in the hell can you link fundamentalist christians in a blanket statement with the tea party? Perhaps you should get your facts straight before making assinine knee jerk statements. I am far from a dunfamentalist christian, but i love the tea party message of pulling back from the abyss we are heading for without radical change in washington. I wonder how in the hell any sane american can't see that, and that there is only one, loosely organized movement preaching that now and a actually voting that in the house now, and that is the tea party, but you go on ahead and "hate" reason and logic.

Aw, heck. With Libya falling where is the CIA going to send suspects for torture?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/world/africa/03libya.html?_r=1&hp

Amy is on this one...
When's the last time you heard of a Christian stoning his neighbor for adultery?

Christians don't take the Bible as the word of God, at least not the Old Testament. And there are conflicting passages even in the New Testament. Regardless of your beliefs, the FACT is that the Bible is a conglomeration of books and writing compiled and edited and (often mis-)translated over centuries. And who are Christians to dismiss the Agnostic Gospels (Phillip, Mary, et al)?
Move on to our Jewish brethren with their own flavor of the good book.
Then we have the Mormons. And even those crazy scientologists. Not to mention the Eastern religions.

The underlying point people have to grasp is that most other religious tend to not advocate KILLING NON-BELIEVERS. Islam does. This isn't crazy mixed-up Zionist ranting. This is fact. Read the Quran if you doubt. Especially the parts about lying to non-believers to further the cause.

Oh, and 'running off at the keyboard' is classic.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and the GOP's become one big tent with room for *all* *kinds* of members.

Here's a quick look at Pat Condell's take on Sharia law:

www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Sjrc2UC8HZ4&vq=medium#t=120

Have you ever heard of the Crusades? Or the Inquisition? More recently, how about the abortion doctors killed in the name of religious beliefs? Homosexuals who are beaten to death by fine upstanding Christians? "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"? *All* sides have committed atrocities against the others in the name of supporting their religion.

Here's the thing: 98% of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or Pastafarians just want to be left alone to live their lives. They could care less about what other people's religions are as long as they're left alone.

It's the other 2%, the ones who insist you live according to their particular religious rule, that causes the problem(s).

That's why we shouldn't have any religious laws that apply in a sectarian situation. The people that claim US law is based on the 10 Commandments, want Hassidic or Sharia law, are all nuts.