[A_perfect_lady]

I think any religion or ideology has the potential to go either way, it depends on the hand that holds it. Like a gun. In the hands of someone who only wants it for self-defense, it's one thing. In the hands of someone who wants what you have, it's another. Any religion, if used only for guidance of self, is probably harmless enough. It's when you decide that you're going to make other people live under it too that it turns lethal. The problem isn't weapons, politics, or religion. The problem is PEOPLE.

That said, some ideologies attract dangerous people, and Islam seems to be one of them. It's the sawed-off-shotgun in my metaphorical armory.

[Vanders9]

Elegantly put. Maybe Islam attracts dangerous people because it hasnt fully grown up yet. Face it, most of its adherents are living in second or third world nations now. They have never had an equivalent to the renaissance, or anyone like John Locke.

[TEXOKIE]

I like your metaphor. We always get into trouble when we do not respect the other person’s free will and try to exert our own.

[greyfox]

I can agree except on one thing. “That said, some ideologies attract dangerous people, and Islam seems to be one of them.”
Muslims are not attracted to Islam, they are born to it. There
certainly may be the odd case of attraction, by some individual searching for a religion, but that is the exception not the rule. Other than that we agree totally.