Religion should me mocked, problem is when you pick out only one and

[onager]

22. Not remotely the same.

I'm not quite sure what your complaint is - from the OP on, it seems to be the usual complaint that this group is picking on poor li'l Islam and giving a pass to other religions.

You must be brand new here, and have never read much of this group. At least I'll try to be charitable and assume that. But before you go accusing us of the dreaded Islamophobia, you should read some of the previous threads. This group is wonderfully ecumenical in bashing all religions.

On Islamophobia, as I've said too many times - I lived in Muslim countries for about 6 years. (Saudi Arabia and Egypt.) I have literally put my life in the hands of Muslims more times than I can count.

In that last "growing pains" post, you seem to be comparing medieval Xianity with modern Islam (as many people do). I don't consider that a valid comparison for several reasons:

1. Xianity is no longer allowed to burn witches and heretics because its power was finally broken by the rise of the secular state.

In modern fundamentalist Islam, the religion IS the state. That's the very meaning of "sharia" law - law based strictly on the Koran.

2. Modern Fundamentalist Islam also divides the world very clearly into two spheres: Dar al-Islam, the House of Peace, which means nations living under sharia law. And Dar al-Harb, the House of War. That's everywhere else. Not much room for respectful Interfaithy dialogue in that view.

3. Are you trying to say Islam needs a Renaissance? It's already had several, including the famous Abassid Dynasty. In modern times, Muslim nations have had several Ba'ath parties - "Ba'ath" is the Arabic word for "renaissance." And those political parties gave us such Renaissance men as Moammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein. I'm not sure how much more of that Renaissancing the world can stand.

4. There's always the insistence that we non-believers need to grovel and show "respect" and "tolerance" for religion. Well, I have certainly witnessed "respect" and "tolerance" operating in Muslim countries. In Egypt, riots between Coptic Xians and Muslims were not uncommon. In almost every case, those riots happened because either a new mosque or a new Xian church was being built in a neighborhood. The usual respectful, tolerant response to the new neighbors was to burn down their church or mosque.