Why must people, and especially some Christians, have a mindset of us vs them. I've known a few Muslims, and they all come across as just happy, down-to-earth people. None of them sympathize or condone the terrorists.
Someone who made a huge effort to dispel the misconceptions of Islam from a more objective point of view is Karen Armstrong. She is not Muslim, but she knew that from her studies of religions, that things like the Satanic verses weren't exactly being portrayed well. At first, when she began studying Islam, she felt that Islam and it's treatment of women, the attitudes the Quran took, and Muhammad's keeping of many wives would get on her nerves. But after studying a while, she actually found herself attracted to Muhammad, as in his was a passionate message of love.
I think that quickly looking over some of the Quran passages would lead one to think that it was indeed a religion that espoused violence. A closer look would reveal the reasons why it has remained an attractive religiopn for so long, with so many followers that still find comfort in Muhammad's words. As Karen put it, it is a passionate message of love, and the time of it's writing. along with the conditions of that day also need to be brought into account.
Jarvis, can you make an actual post, instead of just one-liners and links to other sites?