Religion: opiate of the extremist

The death of Mohamad Chatah, a moderate politician who had spoken out at
Hezbollah trying to import The Syrian civil war into Lebanon, reminds me that more people have been killed by Muslims in the Middle East than by so-called western aggressors.  Just a quick poll of stories in the news today include rebels/terrorists (depending on your point of view) being ambushed in Syria, 3 killed in Egyptian clashes, people murdered at a funeral in the Yemen (all from the BBC), over 8000 Iraqis killed so far this year mainly by suicide bombers, including people in a church because they were Christian.  These are just today; we are fed a constant diet of death and mayhem from throughout the Arab work, and a lot besides in other countries that is instigated by Islamic orientated terrorists.

Before I go further, this is not a polemic against Muslims, but systems of religious belief clearly lead people to a place where they may be open to illogical and absolutist ideas and are closed to rational intellectual debate.  After all, if you sincerely believe in fairy stories that were told 1500 - 2000 years ago when when the world was a whole lot more mysogynistic than it is today,  science as we know it barely existed and 99% of the world population were illiterate and uneducated, then you are clearly more likely to be beguiled by a persuasive Priest that only women can be ordained, or that there are virgins waiting for you in heaven if only you commit suicide and take a few others with you.  In fact I   Would seriously question your own intellect.  But that is my opinion and it is neither here nor there.  At least it is only an opinion and I am not out to tell other people what they should do.

So while not wishing to pin guilt on any and everyone who follows their understanding of the tenets of the Muslim faith, could we please hear a lot more from the vast majority of Muslims who are reasonable, civilised and educated, not to say god-fearing, people about how Anjem Chawdrey is WRONG to support the deliberate murder if innocents because he disagrees with their government's policy; that Abu Qatada was WRONG to praise the 9/11 terrorists and that there are no Virgins in heaven waiting to throw themselves on the first delusional twenty something that blows himself to pieces in a Baghdad market place or a London bus.

The Quilliam Foundation  says challenging extremism is the responsibility of every member of society. The message needs to be heard not only in the media but in Every place of prayer and worship whenever anyone tries to use religion to preach violence.  And in quite a few political arenas too, but then Politics is sometimes a kind of religion too.