Its a contentious topic but part of the problem is that no one takes up contentious topics and debates them. Unless you bring out the problems and hear others out, no one will make any progress.
Ok here goes.
Lets have recent events only
1) 3 indian born highly educated Muslims plan to bomb Glasgow over (as its being claimed) Salman Rushdie being awarded KnightHood.
2) In Pakistan, radicals take over a so called massage parlour and drag out the chinese and hold them hostage. Leads to a standoff which eventually leads to a bloodbath.
3) Just yesterday, a hardline radical womans organization in Kashmir exhorts women to carry knives with them and attack Indian forces in Kashmir. She further accuses the Indian armed forces of trying to corrupt Kashmiris by bringing bad things into their society in starting relief camps.
Errm ok now being devils advocate, i can agree that giving Rushdie knighthood was a rather foolish move which UK knew would antagonize the Muslims knowing the strong views Islam has with regard to Rushdie. Whether this was a deliberate move by UK or a foolish mistake is debatable. On the second point, if its to be believed, some porno massage clubs were being operated for the Chinese
and as far as 3rd point goes its quite true that in recent times there have been isolated cases some black sheeps indulging in eve teasing and all in Kashmir.
But does all this justify the reactions. Someone blames the whole army for the problem while another individual decides to blow off an airport to take revenge.
The argument that is given, and its the same one everywhere, is that Muslims are the oppressed lot and they are frustrated so take these steps. My question how is it that they are oppressed in every country of the world. USA, UK, France, Balkans, Middle East, India. Indonesia and even China. Even worse they are oppressed in countries that are ruled by Muslims and their own rulers.
Everyday some new cleric invents a new definition of jihad and irrespective of the country, every one of the Muslim world associates himself with events anywhere else. Now this itself is unique. You won't find this close association for any religion where instead people are split on linguistic or country lines. Hardly are people united across borders but its the case in Islam. Which in itself won't be a bad thing if they used this collective unity to improve the conditions of each other. You have instead the exact opposite. The rich and the educated instead provide funding to Madrassas where newer interpretations of Jihad are taught. Science is skewed. And young men are taught that martyrdom will take them to heaven where they will find (some number) of virgin women
Its even more shameful that educated people fund these "schools" when they should be spending the money to provide better education. Another of the Islamic argument is that people are poor and are disillusioned. A lot of people in other religions are also. They don't go around bombing others. Here they do so cos the clerics teach them that doing so will take them to heaven where there problems will be solved.
Till now we all said that the educated "silent majority" of the Muslims has to come forward and refute the vociferous minority of hardliners, but is that even the case? Look at the people carrying out attacks now. These aren't unemployed guys or guys from poor backgrounds. Well educated living in metropolitan areas and still following the path of terror. Its starting to look pretty grim now.
Where is Islam heading? 
Re: Where is Islam heading? 
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
its one of those topics where my optimism about the world just fades away...given their sheer numbers and among them the number of ppl ready to fall for some twisted logic by their preachers(including highly educated ppl as seen recently) i'm afraid, darker days are ahead.....
yeah right..talk about double standards..
