> I wonder what kind of people would carry out such an act. We hear it blamed increasingly on militant Islamic fundamentalists. What kind of religion would sanction such things? I can only hope and believe that the "Islam" of these people equates more closely to the "Christianity" of Hitler and the KKK than it does to any true sense of what Islam is about.

I guess that, as our resident religious scholar, that was my cue. :-}

Islam, in pure form, is a very mild and tolerant religion - especially, as wintermute said, toward the other Semitic religions (which is to say, Judaism and Christianity). However, as with any set of beliefs, there are those who interpret it differently. And there are those who are fanatics.

Islam, according to the will of Muhammed and the Word of Allah, tolerates other religions, so long as they tolerate it. Christians (for example) who live in an Islamic community will not be harassed, provided they do not harass the Muslims. That's a bit simplified, but hey. And bear in mind that that is in an ideal setting.

In reality, it's not quite so pretty. As Dan Quayle said, "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have tremendous impact on history." This statement brings us such wonderful characters as Osama bin Laden, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the rest of the Islamic death-to-the-westerners folks. They're not the rule; they're the exception. They're just the ones we hear about most often.