Originally Posted by The_Dunedan

Agreed, with one small caveat. I'm unaware of any preacher in the US, Canada, or western Europe (one important exception discussed below) making it a point to instruct their followers to -kill- nonbelievers. Protest against, sure. Picket, absolutely. Harass, certainly, and actionable harassment in certain instances. But orders to kill is not something I've heard of except from the more heavily inbred sections of Unionist/Loyalist circles in the North Of Ireland, and in certain parts of Africa where -all- the local religions are heavily imbued with local traditional tribal practice in any case. Even Freddie-boy Phelps doesn't tell people to go out and kill gays. Edited To Add: Such instructions seem much -more- common within Islam. That is not to say that they -are- common, however: the proportion of Islamic preachers and scholars who call for violence is still very small compared to the whole of a 1.3-billion-person faith, and their influence is limited to a small number of sects within Islam which are much, much more militant and willing to embrace violence than the mainstream of worldwide Islam. That those sects sometimes wield disproportionate PR influence thanks to ties to (or support from) wealthy families such as the bin-Laden clan and the Royal House of Saud is an issue for another thread.

I do have to say, however, that being scared of Muslims is silly. I lived in a large European city several years ago: a city with a very sizeable Iranian population and lots of other flavours of Muslim/mid-Eastern folks besides. I even had several Muslim students. Not a single one of them gave me any pause, and every time I heard the phrase "EURabia" I just wanted to reach through the TV/Radio and cockslap the speaker.

Originally Posted by DaveOrion

I think more civilians have been killed than soldiers, Iraq Body Count