so can we finally admit there is a problem between religions that is getting scary?

Being in a war zone and not having a job for 10 years can foment quite a bit too.

I still believe we wouldn't be having these problems if we weren't so militarily economically involved in such a negative way. Sure, there is still a "science is the devil" issue that predates WW1, but western corporate greed made it all much worse.

that religion.
Inquisition, Crusades, partition of India and Pakistan.....horrific historical precedents.

That the problem isn't the religion; but rather, the nutty adherents. Islam and Christianity are not in conflict ... I fact, both, teach tolerance of the other.

I'll tell you exactly what it's going to take to put an end to this.

Alien Invasion.

Not kidding. As long as these idiots actually believe that their "God" is THE God nothing on this planet is going to change their minds. It's going to take a Planetary Event to make the kind of change needed. An event to show that we are really not "Christians, Muslims, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist or whatever religion I forgot, but Earthlings, all of us.

Also, we are already in the middle of the "Religious War", Bush himself called it a Crusade, and believe me that word wasn't lost on the Muslim extremists.

Oh, we'd attack the aliens alright but that wouldn't begin to stop us fighting among ourselves.

Indeed, if the aliens were at all politically astute they could have half of us killing the other half.

The winners get our life extension technology which will allow you to live forever. (some caveats and disclaimers apply)

half"

Maybe they already do... They Live

I know you are probably right and frankly I'm trying to find a ride off this stupid rock as I swear I don't belong here with the kooks.

Exactly... and we need to stop giving deference to religious organizations and beliefs

And we can all agree that the violence isn't limited to any ONE religion.

Arabs and Jews and Christians and Muslims, and more, all have extremist members who use their religion to justify their horrific acts.

Jews against Palestinian settlers, Christian fundies against abortion clinics, Islamic bombers; none really representative of the vast majority of their adherents.

What's frightening to me today, through the lens of someone who has friends of all faiths and no faiths, is this:

I'm frightened by the EASE with which we condemn Islamic-associated acts of violence while looking the other way and ignoring anti-Islamic acts of bigotry.

The West is as guilty of ethnocentrism as any other culture, I suppose.

When the ACLU produced the video, "Fight Hate Speech with More Speech", they didn't mean "with more Hate Speech".

Seems logical.

Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, et al have so abundantly shown.

absence of mass murder. Religion is not the cause of mass murder, mass power is.

Sunni, Shia, whatever. It's a war for power that's couched in religion to motivate their "soldiers."

It's not religion. It's people who are control freaks and cannot let others live peacefully without trying to either beat them into submission or kill them.

the US is playing, just like the others.

People always find a way

The truth is humans are greedy and violent. We have been this way since the beginning and will be to the very end. We have warred over gold, fine gems, silk, oil, land, position, power. The next big war will be over water and food. There may be some religious pretense to it but when you get down to it, it will be about food and water and trying to make religion go away will not stop it. I wish there were an answer. I am a proponent of peace and of non violent resistance. History has examples of both violent and non violent revolutions. I would love to see a resurgence in non violent resistance, but I am not naive. The fact is humans love greed, power, and violence and there will be no end to the fighting.

Blasphemy is illegal in practically the entire Islamic world, and punishable by death in much of it (although in fairness that's rarely enforced).

I don't think it's accurate to identify the main problem as "between religions" rather than "in Islam".

Good luck with that.