As the world's fastest growing religion, Islam increasingly becomes the religion of third world countries-- poor places with huge undereducated populations.
Islam is not the fastest growing religion in the world.
Buddhism and other religions purely in percentages show that Islam is not the fastest growing religion. Islam grows namely through it's followers multiplying by way of having babies. They are encouraged to have large families and most often Muslims do have large families.
A quasi-political form of Islam that is not unlike the neo-Nazi movement among certain disenfranchised segments of the west has developed.
I must correct you: this "quasi-political form" of Islam has existed since Islam's began over 1300 years ago. Islam IS strictly a political cult with religious overtones.
It is violent and angry in nature. Its leaders themselves are often unsophisticated and undereducated. And misguided. The results are frightening.
This does seem quite accurate, though I would disagree that Islamic leaders are undereducated. Today's Islamic leaders, especially in the west, are highly educated and using western education/technology, etc., against us in order to defeat us.
But it is true that Islam has never undergone a reformation and modernization like Chrisitanity. Only Islamic leaders and scholars can encourage and foster such a movement. The sooner a modern Islam repudiates a middle-Ages Islam, the better.
Christianity came about non violently. Look at Jesus and his ways.
It was AFTER he was long gone that some Christians became violent, and this violence Christianity was associated with the crusades --- and the crusades were in direct response to aggressive islamic onslought throughout western Asia (turkey today), Northern Africa and Southern Europe and the access to the "Holy Lands".
Now, for Christianity to "reform", it wasn't necessarily a "reformation" so much as it was a return to Fundamental JESUS teachings. So, to counter, Christianity didn't "reform", rather it turned it's back on violence and returned to fundamental peaceful Jesus teachings/ways.
We cannot, nor should we expect, the same with islam.
Islam is serious brainwashing, violence, hate, deceit and mass killings. And all of this was instilled into Islamic followers by the "prophet" of Islam Muhammad.
When a Muslim kills someone because they left Islam, rejected Islam or because they were deemed an enemy of Islam, they only do what their prophet did and taught them to do.
That is the fundamental problem with islam and unfortunately, this will not change.
No matter how much leftists think Islam can change, it can't because of the serious rotten teachings at it's core.
but when the average American hears "Muslim" they picture a dark-skinned Arab with a full beard and a head wrap. If we were open to ALL kinds of Muslims this thread wouldn't have been made. This thread was made for the sole purpose of focusing in on a distinct form of Islam; extremist. The discordance is everyone is pretending that this represents ALL of Islam.