I ran across some mention of the discussion about Islam and the perception of it as a violent religion.  It was on Josh Claybourn’s blog.  Josh is an extremely intelligent and a good writer too.  I was astonished to see how young he is.  I  followed this link to the article and went on into the comments,  and dove in with a few comments that were a little head strong (confrontive,  etc.)  I often have that knee-jerk reponse to theologically conservative assesments.  Anyway,  there were other posts there by people who stated things much more positively than I did.  I apologized for my inappropriate remarks,  but maintained my position on casting wide judgments on the Muslim faith based on selected passages;  how the same tactics can be used to cast Christianity and/or Judaism as a violent religion (and its present day adherents as represented in the nations of Israel and the U.S.)

Comments on this side are welcome (and anybody who wants to engage this topic from the point of view that Islam can be assessed as a religion that encourages,  predisposes,  or breeds violence.)  I consider it to be more of a matter of what adherents in this faith have experienced at the hands of nations which are associated with Christianity and Judaism.  I do NOT advocate or fail to condemn acts of vengance,  for this is not the way.  An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.  Gandhi faced crises of faith between Muslims and Hindus,   and was killed by fundamentalist members of his own faith,  who wanted him to take a more exclusionary stance toward the Muslims.  After all,  they were the ones who were “right”.