@Jason Brody
For one thing, most of those criticims can just as easily be made against the Bible/Christianity. The problems in the Middle East aren't because of Islam; they're problems with the Third World. Or have you just never heard of Uganda or the DRC?
Also, you do know that Christians and Jews used to stone people as well (and still do, in certain African countries), right?
If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her, and says, I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 "And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, "I did not find your daughter a virgin." But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 "So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. 20 "But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel, by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you, ~ Deut. 22:13-21, on adultery
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you ... Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die. ~ Deut.13:6-10, on religious tolerance
Really, the only thing that keeps certain crazy fundamentalist Christians in the US from stoning adulterers or gays or women who have abortions is the fact that we have such a strong standing government; one that, unlike Afghanistan, no local group of crazies could actually manage to pose any real threat to. See, that's why it doesn't happen here; not because Christianity or Judaism are "better", but because, if some little church in Mississippi or something decided to stone someone, our government and police would be fully capable of hunting down, arresting, and prosecuting everyone involved within a month, at most, and they damn well know it. Whereas in, say, Afghanistan, the tribal groups can out-gun the police, and be a match for the military, and they damn well know it. Again, it's not Islam, it's the Third World.
But I get the distinct feeling you've read neither the Bible, the Torah, nor the Qur'an. Perhaps you should, so you'll be better prepared to make such comparisons and criticisms.
As for funding; they do get funding from other extremists, in addition to things like drugs and money-laundering. Osama bin Laden having been a Saudi aristocrat, and thus having had access to a metric shit-ton of oil money without any need for funding, didn't hurt either. If you think that all, or even most, or even half of, Muslims support Al-Qaeda or the Taliban then you're an idiot.
Again, most Muslims are not extremists. The vast majority do hate extremists. And, again, most victims of Muslim terrorists are other (usually more moderate) Muslims. Also, again, there are both soldiers in the US army who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as volunteer soldiers from those countries. Are they extremists?
Also, nice appeal to authority. Too bad none of those people, including Bill Maher (who, as an atheist, I say makes atheists look bad(I find him an unbearably smug person who thinks he knows far more than he actually does)), actually know as much as they think they do about religion. It'll take more than professing that Sam Harris (HAHAHA) and Bill Maher share your prejudice to convince anyone else that they should.
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