Electoral Reform

[Chaerophon]

ETA, Columbia, and the IRA *are* red herrings though. Their objectives are in order, self rule, a weak government and control of the drug trade (greed), and self rule. An example of Christian extremists would be those those who target abortion clinics and staff. The percentage of Christians in that extreme are soooo very low compared to Islamic extremists.

Also, regarding your Catholic examples... Just because the predominant faith in those countries is Catholic doesn't mean the extremists are practicing, or devout. Is religion the reason for the conflict? Not really.

Nor is religion the only reason (or likely the main reason) for the terrorist threat in the U.S. This should not be taken as a claim about the "right of Israel to exist", but simply a statement of fact: if Israel had not taken up in the Middle East in the 1950's, Sept. 11 would not have happened. Islamic terrorism is as much about the perception of cultural imperialism and disputed territory as it is about religion. Religion is the binding vehicle of their hatred, their source of shared identification, but I think any sane person can recognize that it would not have motivated them to such heights on its own.