Every religion has them

The strident vocal public attitude from the US (and observed to some extent in the Australian press) seems to be that Islam is a religion that fosters hatred and is rife with extremist groups. This is often contrasted with Christianity as a peaceful religion founded on forgiveness and tolerance.

Read what the festering extremes of Catholicism have to say and you'll get a more balanced perspective. I expect every religion has them. It's exactly what one should expect when people are taught that their identities and their life purpose are bound in their religion. Some believers can grow up and remain tolerant. Some become locked into defensiveness and anger. *sigh*

It's hard not to sound arrogant and condescending when you're discussing people who'll send hate mail and death threats over the fate of a cheap cracker.

Comments

Hmm, without making any particular judgments, it does seem to be true that Islam is fostering more violence this century than any other religion. I don't think one can legitimately compare death threats that are not intended to be carried out with actual acts of terrorism (or, if you don't like that word, killings of people who are not personally known to their killers).

Although they are not on the scale of the perceived Islamic terrorist threat, the abortion clinic terrorists should not be ignored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion-related_violence

Fortunately the last examples of Catholics executing Jews for Host Desecration was back in 1761 and the likelihood of any resurgence of this practice is small if it doesn't have at least tacit government support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_desecration
However, so long as it's easy for any citizen to get a gun and go postal, I'd be reluctant to write off emailed death threats as hollow.