Kill in the name of God

 (This message was edited by mbhaskar on 06-02-02 @ 4:58 pm EDT)

--It is true for "belief systems", many of these do not stand the test of rationality. Physics etc are sciences which are subjected to empirical tests. We are not talking about those here. Technically there can be any number of religions where belief systems and different POVs are involved and there are followers for each of these POVs.

--Protestants/Catholics etc... we have to distinuish between the organizational/political aspects of religion and personal/spiritual/ philosoplhical aspects.

-- Osama Bin Laden flew those planes into WTC because he wanted the US out of Saudi Arabia, and also on the politics of OIL, which US national interests largely determine. He used the 'brotherhood' and 'jihad' concept to 'bind' muslims. In his own country he has no say, because of repressive regimes.He is an outlaw there. This finds its way into extremism and it's export.
Remember his 'cause' was not taken up by the Palestinians, who asked him to stay out.

-- India has 120 million Muslims, more Muslims than all islamic countries except Indonesia. There the Muslims stayed quite calm and mature all through.No jihad, suicides etc. The reason is that with all its problems, democracy still gets them heard.

--- I live in the middle east. While some countries allow drinking , others don't. This has to do with these countries having State religions. There is no demarcation between State and Religion.

The whole thing is quite complex. It can't be thought of in terms of old military tactics like attack the enemy etc anymore.

It is also very wrong to stereotype Muslims , or anybody for that matter. Perhaps this has been done too often.