dear all
just wanted to make the record streight for all. I have read these articles posted above and read alot of hate and misunderstandings. regarding islam , it is a 1400 year old religion . for those who believe it has been an intolerent and its followers discultured and barbaric are wrong. Islamic nations in the middle ages were the most cultured people in the world , they were rich in science and arts , Algebra , astronmy , much had alot to do with Islam (algebra for example came from the scientist Al Jabr). Thus islamic nations at one time were extremely scientific and spiritual, if you read Mohammads biographies , u will understand that he was a very tolerant and Just man.
the main reason why u see islam in this stage is :
a) the introduction of the Alwahab sect
b)World war I and the inception of Saudi Arabia
c) the soviet afghan war
d) 9/11 and the potrayal of islam in western civilization
the Alwahab sect
Islam like christianity is devided into sects each quite different from the other , in the late 19th century a man with extremely rigid beliefs about islam rose up who was called Al wahab who spread a very rigid and fundamentalistic approach to islam , he spread a religion which took away the rights granted to women (btw did u know that in the 14th century women were treated as cattle and it was islam that gave them rights and protection , kinda wierd as how islam is potrayed these days)
anyway , the alwahab sect gained popularity amongs local beduins in saudi arabia.

world war I
Islam prior to world war I has a head , something like the pope called the Khalifa, at the time most of non colonized islamic states were ruled by the ottoman empire. in world war I , the khalifa made the blunder of allying with the axis , thus the british sent an agent to destabalize the ottoman rulership by inciting the local arab bedouins , he quickly gained trust of the bedouins (who were wahabi and thus apposed to the ottoman way of moderate and enlightened islam) and set out to destabalise the ottomans by bombings of civilian outposts and rails (terrorist actvities no) well gues who he was , yes good old Lawrence of Arabia. well after that the ottomans were overthrown and saud took over arabia and became its king (he was of the wahibi faith) he took over islams most holy site , the city of Maccah and the kaaba.
Soviet afghan war
soviet afghan war was another turning point in the radicalization of islam , this is when america setup equipments stocks , the arabs provided the money, there was a call for jihad to fight the amercans war and special agents were inserted to train these people (guess who the agent was , yes none other than OBL himslef) anyway the soviet union defeated , america withdrew and walah power vacuum . Osama realises yes he has the weapons and the money now . At this point good old saadam mr secular , americas pal (fighting a war against iran heavily sponsored by america) decided to flex his muscles and launched an invasion into kuwait, threatning both saudi and american interests . OBL contacted the arabs and told em he had the striegnt to drive off the iraqis , the saudis rejected his proposal and went to america instead. OBL after desert storm 1 decided he needed cash and a ready supply of people to exert his pressure onto the world , thus cutting a v long story short the wto first bombing , plane highjackings and finally 9/11
9/11 and islams potrayal
well after 9/11 OBL became the defacto figure for islam , a person with aspirations purely political with nothing to do with islam who manipulated the youth of islam , playing on their emotions (there is alot of injustice in the world my friends , when one sees a picture of a victim in bosnia and cosovo , in chechnea and kashmir and in palastine , it is kinda hard , imaging what that must do if one is a) young and full of fervor and

less educated). The media has also done its bid in potraying islam as vicious and insensitive which is clearly not the case ,
In response to a comment earlier that the 'minority' according to him which is moderate and does nothing about the terrorists well , with all the might of america , has it been able to root out extremism and terrorism , how can moderate people root it out just like that without addressing the causes of this , u see the causes are quite different , we dont live in a game where everything is good or evil , no its different , there are shades of gray , the main reason for extremism is because there is too much social injustice in the world, u see there is no balancer , people who live in civilized nations like you and me cant imagine life in countries where basic social freedoms are supressed , not necessarilly by the governments (though they have a large part) but by western civilization itself, where there is hunger powerty and lac of education, u see only the most desperate person can end his life , no doctorine can make a person take his own life ... no doctorine is that powerful..... its desperation and a feeling of total injustice which is in escapable. thus it is upto us ,
civilized people of today to understand and firstly learn to tolerate one another and then find the root causes like the ones mentioned above and try to settle them , only then can we achieve peace. Also i would like to add that actions of a few should not be considered actions of the second largest faith in the world , for God sake , there are millions of people following this faith who live amongst you , who are your friends and co workers can you seriously blame them for an illiterate who burns a flag in a mob of 50
I hope that you found my comments informative, they are in no way intended to hurt anyones faith or beliefs so it is important that you people understand not to hurt our beliefs, I am a muslim and have deep respect for Jesus and moses(who we believe are beloved prophets of God just like Mohammad)
kind regards