You see, it's more complicated than that. There's a lot nastiness going around
within Islam right now. You, i.e. the "westerners" aren't the only people targeted by these people. They are determined to destroy everything and anything. Why? Maybe they want to return to the stone ages.
Here's what I'm talking about:
According to a report, the Saudi government has arrested more than 100
Qadianis allegedly involved in ‘illegal activities’ in Jeddah. (Illegal here might mean simply ‘praying’.) A ‘trained group’ — office-bearers of the Qadiani Jama’at Jeddah — is accused of preaching Qadiani beliefs in and around the city. The ‘hard-working’ Saudi intelligence agencies arrested 45 people not from secret underground cells or hideouts but when they were offering prayers openly some days ago. Interestingly, a majority of the arrested people are from India.
Until now, the Qadiani ‘problem’ has been a Pakistani problem. The community was excommunicated in Pakistan by amending the 1973 Constitution. Thus, if a Qadiani says the kalima now he can be arrested. Pakistani passports categorise them as non-Muslims, but if someone were to ask Pakistan about the Qadiani religion, it would have a hard time proving how a Qadiani is a not a Muslim in Pakistan but is one in India. Pakistan excludes its non-Muslims, India does not exclude any Indian national. Therefore the Saudis have no way of knowing that an Indian Muslim is a Qadiani or not. For years it banned the Shias of Iran from doing Hajj. Now it is preening itself for catching a few Indians who are Muslims in their own country. This is ominous. Having declared the Shias as infidels, and warned that it may intervene in Iraq on the side of the Sunni minority which is infested with Al Qaeda, is Saudi Arabia now getting ready for ‘Islamic cleansing’ all over the globe? *
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Daily Times
That's disturbing and I can place several parallels between what you described, and the rise of protestantism in Christianity.
From what I read, the main split in Islam is that of Sunni versus Shia (you may correct my spellings, I read about these things in Dutch which uses different phonetics for Arabic) which is comparable to the old [Catholicism <> Protestantism <> Orthodoxism] rift in Christianity. Besides that, there are various different streams of which I don't know all the names and characteristics in Islam (that would require some serious studying) but in Christianity they include Calvinism, Lutherism, Baptism, Mennonism, Reformed etc etc
Since I'm more familiar with Christianity, I'm going to draw some parallels here cause I'd like to know exactly how the evolutions of the two religions compare. Maybe you could point out where I'm wrong and where I'm right cause obviously otherwise I won't know
Christianity was first torn apart
centuries ago in the days of the Roman Empire. That happened mostly because Christianity spread beyond its monocultural borders. Different peoples of different cultures and different languages all differently interpreted the Bible but most importantly the codes of conduct and protocols of the religion which lead to separate movements.
As times changed, the Roman Empire dissolved and the insecurities of the Middle Ages slowly but surely eroded the European continent; more and more splits occurred: which I would compare to current insecurities and severe lack of stability in most of the Muslim world right now, particularly the Middle East.
The fact Islam is a younger religion also adds up in the equation because what took place first in Christianity was the divide between Catholics and Orthodoxists (or Sunni and Shia). Protestantism and its numerous small movements didn't arrive in history until the Roman Empire had as good as disappeared and Europe was in absolute chaos comparable to the Middle East today but also applicable to large parts of Indonesia and other great Muslim countries like Pakistan.
Here's the backlash: Europeans know, because they are taught so in schools, that the violence
within Christianity lasted for centuries on end. Dutch independence for example was directly inspired by Dutch Protestants seeking to tackle the Catholic Spanish rule in the Low Countries. The Northern Irish conflict
still hasn't been resolved. The reasons the worst of the violence disappeared are easy to identify:
1) Secularity, the divide between Church and State and resulting freedom of religion.
2) Increasing wealth. If you have something to lose, you are unlikely to pick a fight.
So when Europeans today hear about conflicts
within Islam, they visualise a bloody conflict that will last for centuries and that will expand into Europe since the Muslim minority here doesn't seem to be too worried about losing Western values and wealth to start with.
Is the above comparison completely wrong, or is there truth to it? Because if there is, an increasingly globalised world is going to suffer by the hands of a religion yet again.
"My God we need China now."
I seem to have passed the exam. Hm, I guess university isn't what it used to be anymore here in Belgium.
Bah

So your multiple choice questions aren't like the one I posted in this thread a while ago then?