A thread some found offensive in Politics got me to thinking about what some of them decried about Islamic Fundamentalism, echoing the "conventional wisdom." You hear that "religion is the excuse", that "religion cannot be blamed" that "it is the corruption of religion that is the problem." Nonsense.

Having never been terribly interested in medieval superstitions, my reading of the manuals to the religions springing forth from Mesopotamia has been very light. But most of what I have read (for an example see: [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=155326|New Testament Calls for Jihad]) I find particularly vile.

(Aside: I am a theist, so do not confuse "religion" with what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about those religions rooted in the ME that come with manuals on how to practice them).

Read those manuals, practice those religions as written and you will be willing to kill any man who does not share your belief. You will take their women and children and make them your slaves. You will take everything they own. All of this, and more, according to your manuals, is God's will.

The reason you don't see the kind of horrors here in the US that you see in the ME from all the "believers" is that the vast majority here have corrupted their religions. They simply do not practice their religions in the manner their manuals instruct them to. So called "Islamic Extremism" is actually "Islamic Honesty" in the sense that they are practicing their religion as taught.

I am grateful that most Western "believers" do not practice their religions as taught or there would be widespread murder, rape and pillage all over the Western world.

The problem is most definitely not the "corruption of religion" but its absence.