It is sad, alarming and enlightening to see people rioting and dying over political cartoons that raise legitimate issues about terrorism carried out by Islamic extremist. While we should be sensitive to people’s religious beliefs, we must also strive to keep religions evolving to be more tolerant of alternative views, and to embrace higher moral values. Much of the Muslim world is now at the stage Christianity was at a few hundred years ago, when heresy would bring the death penalty, women had few rights, and the Christian Holy Wars (Inquisitions) killed millions of innocent people in the name of God. Fortunately, Christianity has evolved and we no longer embrace Biblical guidelines, such as Deuteronomy 13 that advocate killing non-believers; and other outdated decrees such as Exodus 21:15 & 17, which are immoral by today’s standards. Unfortunately, the Koran has its share of intolerant guidelines that Muslims are suppose to embrace since only a literal interpretation is allowed by the Clerics. For examples of its intolerance to other religions see sections 3:86-91, 2:190-93, & 5:86. Regrettably, the rights of Muslim women are still at least a century behind the Western world because of this orthodox interpretation of the Koran.

It is telling that Muslim leaders are quiet with regard to how Islamic extremist are perverting their religion. Their muteness goes beyond their resentment of the West, as they must fear their own extremists who tout the death penalty for heresy. The question we need to now ask is: How do we get Muslim extremist to evolve and not embrace religious superstitions that suggest immoral ideas such as getting rewarded with a multitude of virgins in Heaven for suicide bombings. Muslim democracies that promote secular education may indeed be the best way to accelerate the evolution of Islam and to stop terrorism.

Fortunately, our founding fathers realized that religion should be separated from government, and made that division a key part of our Constitution. It was not simply freedom of religion that drove this separation of church and state; it was also driven by that fact that many of the architects of our constitution (e.g., Madison, Jefferson, and Adams) were Deist and believed that Christian dogma stifled man’s progress. Read Thomas Paine’s book Age of Reason, or visit the Deism.org website to understand these beliefs that helped shaped a secular America that leads the world morally today.

Besides worrying about Muslim extremist, we must also be on guard to protect our own society from religious zealots who want to reunite government and religion to promote and justify their own particular religious beliefs. Intelligent Design is the latest attempt to do so in this country. Despite the fact that fossil records and DNA mapping give direct proof of evolution, and that we can even see evolution occurring in real time, some of our top leaders support the teaching of ID. While this is hopefully only political pandering, it is absolutely the wrong direction for this country to be moving. It is, in fact, an example of regressing back to when religious superstitions ruled. This lack of reason is what we want Muslim extremist to evolve away from. One final point on ID, if a complex world requires an intelligent designer, doesn’t that criteria apply to the designer who is even more complex? It is hard for us to say we just don’t undertand it all.

While religion does not provide real answers to questions such as: where do we come from? It does provide comfort in a harsh world, and provides moral values that are strongly reinforced by the promise of Heaven and the fear of Hell. This carrot and stick approach to morality was of real value during the more barbaric stages of man’s evolution. And, still has value for those that do not have their own built-in moral compass. Religion is also an important social binding force in developing countries like much of the Muslim world. In addition, in developed nations like our own, where both the government and businesses are cutting back on social safety nets such as healthcare and pensions, where else can people turn but god for help? What the world really needs is for religions get past the dogma of their Holy books, and start a New Age of Reason where all that matters in God’s eye, is how well we treat each other.

Atleast as awful as the Roman Catholic church, rejected by Europe in the Protestant Revolution for its dishonesty and injustices. Of course the West rejects Islam. How could we tolerate its opposition to secular truth? Is Islam anything more in the modern world than a tool for keeping the peasants under control, as Christianity degenerated into being under the Roman Popes? The sincere Muslim demands freedom from ridicule, and reserves the right to kill if you laugh at his religion or its founder. These people are wrapped way too tight. Do they really expect to move in among us and not get laughed at? They don't know us very well, do they?

I came to this page expecting to see links to the cartoons. Shock and horror, there was no link. The talking head on Tucker Calson was wrong. I guess the Editor did not know what was actually happening.

Political cartoons are supposed to be offensive. Cartoons of George W. Bush with pointy ears and beady eyes are supposed to make him look stupid and convey that idea. This point of view has adherents and some who would disagree. However, so far, nobody is willing to kill anyone, burn down an embassy or boycott businesses of the country from which such a cartoon is published. That would be childish and stupid, wouldn't it?

Let me say for the record that for 7 years I was a devout Muslim. I was attracted to Islam by the Islamic Sufi theology of Allah's love for his creation. Islam stresses the oneness of Allah. Many Sufis carry this oneness further to say that there is no essential separateness between the Creator and creation. This realization of our oneness with each other and with the Creator should foster love and mutual respect. The Quakers talk about how we have "that of God in us." Mansur Al-Hallaj, the great 10th century Muslim Sufi, told a pilgrim to do tawaf (circumambulate) around him, instead of going to Mecca, as he was God – (or that he had "that of God in him.") Of course, Mansur Al-Hallaj was executed by the Islamic government of his day, just as the Danish cartoonists would be if Muslims less holy than Mansur Al-Hallaj could get at them. One would hope that if we can realize that there is "that of God in all of us," then we will not be able to behead innocent kidnap victims or fly planes into buildings full of innocent people. These actions by Muslims get little criticism from the Muslim world, but a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban provokes massive, violent and, I submit, childish reactions. Why? Because the truth hurts. The bomb-in-the-turban cartoon and the one about heaven running out of virgins for the suicide bombers hit a Muslim nerve. It is the truth behind these cartoons that really offends Muslims.

There is a large, powerful, well-financed and dominant (Wahabi) faction of Islam that is very far from the loving Sufi Islam that I converted to in 1997. This childish faction of Islam strains at a level of minutia that is incredible. I visited prominent imams in Egypt where people asked long series of questions like, “If a woman washes for prayer and has nail-polish on, is the washing valid and will Allah accept her prayer?” (The answer was, “no.”) This trivial pursuit is at the opposite end of my Sufi point of view, which would echo the words of Jesus when faced with a similar question regarding clean hands and eating food. He said that it was the filthy words (and actions) that come from a person that defiles the person more than any dirt that may enter a person. It is violence that defiles the demonstrators more than an offensive cartoon, which may point out an uncomfortable truth.

I was faithful to my prayers and all the five pillars of Islam until, in 2004, I got as sick of Islamic hypocrisy as I had been previously of Christian hypocrisy. I just gave it all up.

To be perfectly honest, Islam is a religion founded on violence. Muslims venerate the battle of Badr as first Muslim battle victory, in which a small Muslim force from Medina defeated a large anti-Muslim force from Mecca. What the Muslims were trying and failed to do was raid a Meccan caravan and steal the contents. The Meccan defending force was defeated, but the caravan was saved. Later Muslim raids were more effective in stealing Meccan commerce until they were able to bring Mecca to its knees and the Prophet Mohammed entered the city unopposed. The Prophet Mohammed was a military commander who led forces that killed people and raided commerce. One can argue that given the circumstances, he was justified in doing what he did, but it is completely disingenuous to argue that Islam is a peaceful religion. I should also point out that other religions with much more pacifist founders have ended up just as violent.

What really offends me, however, about the Muslim reaction to the cartoons is the lack of proportion. There are Muslims in West Africa and in the Darfur region of Sudan who are suffering at the hands of government forces; other Sudanese Muslims and Christians were killed by Egyptian police forces in front United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Cairo. Where is the Muslim outrage? The rest of the Muslim world could care less. Why? Those who dominate the religion don’t care about Muslims who are black and non-Arab. I became a Muslim when I believed that Islam was less racist than Christianity. I left Islam, when I found it to be just as racist as other religions. There is no Islamic outrage nor burning of embassies when the governments of Sudan, Egypt, Ivory Coast, China and Russia kill Muslims. The embassies of these countries are safe from Muslim outrage. However, Danish embassies are attacked and businesses boycotted because of cartoons! The cartoons were published in newspapers unconnected with the Danish government and boycotted businesses. Am I wrong to think the reaction is childish and lacks proportion?