[mikester]

It's all pretty sad. I am acquainted with Muslims here and there but I don't know that I have any friends who are Muslim (though I know some Hindu Indians). Those that I am aware of are very good people.

I've done a lot of searching on Google regarding Islamic history and specifically Saudi Arabian history as it seems to me that the most reliable formation of government in the mideast started with SA.

From the timelines I have looked at in various historic sources (I'm being very general) there have always been Islamic Extremists who have taken measures to violent hands. There has also been a few extremely common themes in the violence. They want foreigners off of their land; they want modern technology removed from their presence and they do not want to give Israel it's own state (withdraw from Jerusalem). I don't recall seeing a lot of "conversion" efforts that turned to the theme of "convert or die."

This was actually a topic I was considering posting but I hadn't gotten far enough in my research to post in more than these generalities.

I'm not sure I would condem islam as a whole but in every religion there are extremists - The Islamic extremists seem to be willing to take the harshest measures. I wonder if it is because they have the least to loose?