re: #51 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie

The statues date from a couple of centuries before the Muslim conquest, ie 6th Century BCE.

CE, not BCE.

Your point is well made, though. What many American’s think of Islam today is a stereotype based on very recent rises in a kind of anarchic, backwards cult (and yes, spread by the likes of the KSA.)

After initial conquests, many Muslim areas were no more violent than many Christian areas (after the Christian conquests.)

I think the rise of modern suicidal fanaticism in some variants of Islam is down to the loss-of-god problem that modernity brings.

We humans long ago invented gods because we needed them.

Now along comes modernity pooh-poohing gods and … lots of people are very upset at that. Some are driven into violent extremism.