If you are trying to live like the Prophet and also to put the stories (haddiths) about the Ansari and the Salafi into practice today exactly as they were in the 7th century, then, surely, all things that don’t fit into that scenario are wrong?
For example, gay marriage, elections, secularism and multiculturalism, scientific thought and the appeal to reason are none of them 7th century things. AK47s, utes with machine guns and even the (made in China?) black flags and, above all the sinful internet, which is strictly controlled in Saudi, ought, surely to be abandoned?
It is not logical to pick what you like and to condemn what you do not like – rock’n’roll, gay sex, godlessness, democracy, Israel.

There is no contradiction for a Muslim in using an AK or the internet and being devout.

The problem is that many of them want an unalterable moral code from the 7thC. to be how we live life rather than what tech is used.

There is no contradiction in that but there is problems for us in that.

You can tell you children that Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse, that he was a perfect man, even though he married a 6 yr old but it is nonsense that should not be taught at School. It is a children’s story believed by 1.6bn people.

Faith schools need to go and let the Children learn about the real world.

That loosely Christian and enlightenment mix that made modern Europe is the most tolerant place on earth.

European Atheists would also be a product of that mix and usually supporters of it.

Don’t kill gays, women are equal to men. If we want to create a statue of Mohamed in a tank of Urine, like Piss Christ, then we should be allowed.

Most of the west is successful, and was built upon secular Christianity. Its what helped end slavery a century before any Arab state, think back to the enlightenment of the 1800s.

I have two good friends who are Muslim blokes and they are certainly not nut cases either!! As I said, there are nutbars in every group of people, and decent people too.

Well, I have Muslims in my own family and they are certainly not nut cases! What is at stake is their whole way of life – Ramadan, Eid, food, clothing, marriage and relations with the other sex, ceremonies like marriage, funerals and initiations.
These are becoming more and more difficult to fit into modern life. Hence the insecurity which results in an insistence on banning the small things – eating pork, gambling, alcohol.

I’m really not sure. I think if you went to some parts of America, like Alabama, and the poorer parts of the Bible and dismissed their ‘faith’, you might also get a violent reaction. Religion and politics are a very heady and dangerous brew, probably worst in America and the Middle East.
It seems to me that if you give people, who feel angry and marginalised in some way, not just those in poverty, but those who are educated who feel part of a marginalised culture, they will use whatever they can to justify their hatred and feelings of alienation in a very negative way. I have no axe to grind, their are nutters in every walk of life and every creed and none. It’s obvious to most people that murdering others in the name of whatever faith or God professed is the profession of the lost, not the found.

Let us face it, many – not by any means all – Muslims are desperately insecure. Very early on – by the 10th century a.d. – they had decided to turn backwards towards the Salafi and the Ansari to learn their way of life. Christians, under Thomas Aquinas and the Reformation, turned to reason, not revelation and developed.
Now the poor old Muslims find they are strangers in a foreign world. Why deny modern capitalism and modern industry and then use modern trucks/cell phones/internet/AK47s?