So...

[kandrathe]

I could quote you some boring passages, but that wouldn't make any sort of point would it. Get serious. If my finding little of value in reading the Qur'an is disturbing to the continent of Asia Minor (note: I think Indonesia has the largest Islamic population), then bring on the fatwah. I don't disagree with everything in the Qur'an, and I only mentioned the portions that exhorted violence in its followers to support my point. And, unlike other books, there seems to be quite a few people who take a very literal reading.

I also reject your claim that all books have disturbing passages. Ever heard of Mo-Tzu? I found nothing disturbing in his philosophy. I disagree with some of his philosophy, but I understand them.

There are things in all religions and dogmas that I protest to, but I find that if you try to find common ground it is there too.

Where is the common ground? No non-islamic nation trying to live in that region has been able to find it for 1400 years. How do you find common ground with a thing that says if you object to it, it is punishable by death. Have you studied the Qur'an? Do you know the life story of Mohammed? Go ahead and defend him if you like. To me at best, he was a warlord opportunist who used religion and visions from God to further his own ambitions and expel the infidels from Arabia. Most of what has been written about him is nationalistic and religious legend, rather than history. Hmmm, kind of like El Cid and his divine inspiration for expelling the Moors and Jews from Spain. Divine booty.

Hey, now that the fatwah is out on me I might as well out some other westerners who question the reality of "The Prophet". Insulted, bah.
Jack Wheeler -- The Myth of Mecca

An excerpt quoted from Islamic history scholar, Mohammed Ibn al-Warraq:

"Once the Arabs had acquired an empire, a coherent religion was required in order to hold that empire together and legitimize their rule. In a process that involved a massive backreading of history, and in conformity to the available Jewish and Christian models, this meant they needed a revelation and a revealer - a Prophet - whose life could serve at once as a model for moral conduct and as a framework for the appearance of the revelation. Hence (Ubu'l Kassim was selected to be the Prophet), the Koran, the Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet), and the Sira were contrived and conjoined over a period of a couple of centuries. Topographically, after a century or so of Judaeo-Moslem monotheism centered on Jerusalem, in order to make Islam distinctively Arab... an inner Arabian biography of Mecca, Medina, the Quraysh, the Prophet and his Hegira (flight from Mecca to Medina alleged in 622, Year One in the Islamic calendar) was created as a purely literary artifact. An artifact, moreover, based not on faithful memories of real events, but on the fertile imaginations of Arab storytellers elaborating from allusive references in Koranic texts, the canonical text of the Koran not being fixed for nearly two centuries."

Edit: If you are Islamic and I just yanked away a crutch, sorry. You asked.

Edit2: Saw this news bit today and I thought -- How ironic! A full circle. Saudis quiz 'gay wedding' guests