re: #144 quickjustice

I understand your point, but you don’t understand Islam. The fundamentalist Muslims (extremists murderers) ARE the “reform” group within Islam. They’re the ones who want “back to basics” the way early Protestants wanted “back to the Bible”. I’m not saying extremist Muslims are the same as Protestant Christians (because the Biblical New Testament extols peace and love, not warfare and murder), but there is no “Catholic Church” within Islam to impose its hierarchical moral authority upon all Muslims.

So we shouldn’t want “reform” of Islam as much as moderation that dilutes the early barbarity of Islam (rather like later Judaism softened the early and harsh Biblical rules about slaughtering everyone in pagan tribes after the Hebrews scored military victories over their enemies) as much as possible.

Islam does have Orthodox Church analogues, in Shi’ism. But just as Orthodoxy is a marginal force west of Sarajevo, Shi’ism isn’t going to amount to much in populations which aren’t already Shi’ite.