re: #11 wrenchwench

That’s a pretty big ‘if’, and citing Maher doesn’t count as verification. Harris mentions a poll of British Muslims, as though it is representative of something. I doubt there is enough polling and statistics to support a claim of “Islam is the motherload of bad ideas”. Even from an atheist who thinks all religions are loads of bad ideas, it is nothing but ignorant (possibly profitable) bigotry on Harris’s part to single out Islam as ‘the motherload’.

You know, the polls are out there, you just have to google them.

pewglobal.org
The new poll finds broad support for harsh punishments: 78% favor death for those who leave Islam; 80% favor whippings and cutting off hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and 83% favor stoning adulterers.

pewglobal.org
77% of Egyptian Muslims favor floggings and amputation
58% of Jordanian Muslims favor floggings and amputation
36% of Indonesian Muslims favor floggings and amputation
82% of Pakistanis favor floggings and amputation
65% of Nigerian Muslims favor floggings and amputation

82% of Egyptian Muslims favor stoning adulterers
70% of Jordanian Muslims favor stoning adulterers
42% of Indonesian Muslims favor stoning adulterers
82% of Pakistanis favor stoning adulterers
56% of Nigerian Muslims favor stoning adulterers

49% of Nigerian Muslims have favorable view of al-Qaeda (34% unfavorable)
23% of Indonesians have favorable view of al-Qaeda (56% unfavorable)
34% of Jordanians have favorable view of al-Qaeda
25% of Indonesians have “confidence” in Osama bin Laden (59% had confidence in 2003)
1 in 5 Egyptians have “confidence” in Osama bin Laden

telegraph.co.uk (40% of UK Muslims want Sharia)

macdonaldlaurier.ca
35% of Canadian Muslims would not repudiate al-Qaeda

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Islam the “motherload of bad ideas”, that’s a needless inflammatory statement. But neither would I look at these polls and try to draw some equivalency with fundamentalist Christians in the US, as many liberals tend to do when confronted with these numbers. I’m not in favor of fundamentalism of any kind, but we can’t ignore that the Muslim world has a particular problem with fundamentalism and intolerant views of women, homosexuals, and practitioners of minority religions. Not if we’re being honest.