Islam is currently more dangerous to world peace and free thought than any other religion

Thank you for your opening arguments. I can accept your submission of global tranquility rather than global peace although I am generally not impressed with arguing over the minutiae of semantics. Having said that may I submit the following amendment?... I wish only to clarify that in stating "free thought" in my opening statement I assumed this to be synonymous with "free speech". I took this to be obvious (as I'm sure you did as well) since no one can actually know what anyone else is thinking anyhow. First I would like to address your comments on my opening statement. Your dismissal of my point 1 is done far too hastily. Most religions (particularly Christianity and Islam) take great pains to subjugate women to second-class status, but I argue yes that Islamic women whose rights are suppressed in countries throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia are not truly free to express their thoughts. If you have any doubt in this I wish to highlight the example of Ayaan Hirsi Ali (http://en.wikipedia.org...). I will briefly touch on the points of her life most pertinent to our discussion. In her native Somalia Ms. Ali grew up believing fully in Islam and the writings of the Qur'an. As a five-year old she was genetically mutilated... a practice done to young girls often simply to ensure the victim will never again be capable of experiencing full sexual pleasure. What type of religion inflicts such abuse on 50% of its population merely on the basis of gender? How free to express her thoughts on the matter do you suppose Ms. Ali was before she was violated in this way? (1) On the way to an arranged marriage in Canada Ms. Ali declared asylum in the Netherlands in order to escape marrying someone she did not love. While in the Netherlands Ms. Ali made a film with Theo Van Gogh called "Infidel" in which the gross inequality of women was fully discussed. The film was unanimously decried in the Muslim World (2). Eventually it earned Mr. Van Gogh his death sentence on the streets of Amsterdam... murdered by a young Muslim Dutchman of Moroccan descent. (3) Ms. Ali has lived under constant guard because of the numerous threats she has faced ever since then. Ms. Ali continues to bravely stand up to Islam. She vigorously explains the deplorable status of women in Islam and promotes the need to curtail the unquestioned respect we in the Western World afford it, so I don't ask you to take it from me... take it from this one truly courageous woman. Her life story clearly illustrates all 3 of my points. You dismissed my point 2 rather flippantly: the idea that intolerance to religion is NOT a threat to world peace or free thought is utterly absurd. Who amongst us is does not edit our own statements in social situations for fear of offending someone else? It happens all the time in matters of simple social norms, but in religious matters it goes much, much further. Intimidation can come in all forms... without laying a hand on you someone can threaten your life... only the truly brave do not submit to this type of bullying... which occurs all the time in the grand arena of world affairs. You may argue smugly in the safety of your own home, and under the protection of your Western nation's freedom of speech laws, that anyone threatened with death still technically has the right to free speech, but in the real world this all-to-often has the effect desired by the bullies who utter such threats. Recall the fury of anger from Muslims worldwide at the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad: the death threats at the cartoonist who drew the cartoon, and the papers who published it. Many papers decided NOT to publish this cartoon because of the death threats of fanatical Muslims. Clearly free speech was defeated in these instances. And how can we truly build a more tranquil world when free speech is suppressed with intimidation? But lets stop at mere death threats. Let's turn to actual violence.. (point number 3). I have already given the example of Theo Van Gogh. Need I remind you of September 11th, 2001? The Spanish train bombing of 2004? The London metro bombings of 2005? What other religion has recently either directly inspired or aided in the cohersion of young men to commit such atrocities? This is different than situations like in Northern Ireland where the hatred is much more political and less to do with the idea that one side has divine authority behind them. Notice as well the multi-national occurrences. This is not like Hindu-Muslim violence which occurs almost strictly on or near the Indian sub-continent, or the Jewish-Palistinian conflict in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Besides, notice that in both of these examples followers of Islam are one half of the combatants. You may argue that the young men who commit acts of suicide bombings (and they are almost always young men), are actually acting out for political or social reasons. In this you would partly be correct, but not entirely. We must never lose sight of the fact that they would never have otherwise done these things so willingly, unquestioningly and in such numbers without the promise that God is on their side, that their victims deserve their punishment because they are "Infidels", that they will instantly be transported to a heavenly paradise, and that many virgins await them there...etc. I acknowledge that the majority of Muslims in the world live morally and peacefully and never dream of doing such things. And every major religion claims to be peaceful and yet harbors its own version of extremists... but in no other religion does the outlying fringe perform such wicked deeds more often and more willingly. Islam has a lot of growing up to do before it truly has my respect. It's leaders must work tooth and nail to discredit those portions of the Qur'an which promote hatred and inequality. It was during Europe's Enlightenment of the 16, 17 and 1800's that Christianity's similar iron grip on society was shaken off... we in the West no longer follow our holy books literally to the same extent as do most Muslims. Islamic culture is long overdue to have its power over its people diminished, much like Christianity has already experienced. Regrettably, even when (or if) this occurs I fear there will always be Islamic extremists who use the Qur'an to promote their hatred, because within its pages is such an overabundance of quotes which denigrate women, and promote the idea that in reality this world is populated by two kinds of people: the believers... and the infidels. Muslim clerics will protest that these passages are misinterpreted, but this only goes back to the points in my previous paragraph... Islam provides such a fertile breeding ground for the misguided to commit atrocious acts. Surely one cannot argue that in cultures born out of a predominately Christian tradition does such subjugation of women's rights persist, such tolerance for intolerance exist, and such acts of violence be as commonplace. Finally, I ask you to remember the math involved. Of the world's approximately 6.7 billion inhabitants, there are roughly 2.1 Christians, 1.7 Muslims, and 900 million Hindus... these are the top 3 religions by population. I have already argued many times that Islam is currently far more threatening to world tranquility and free speech than Christianity. If you happen to come up with examples from other religions I ask you to acknowledge the fact that those acts, while despicable, would be greatly outnumbered by those of Islam. As for your contention that Stalinism is a religion I cannot agree. If you read my note in the "Comments" section of this page you will notice my reply to an earlier debator in which I state I am considering religions only to be those institutions which subscribe to a higher power of some sort. I accept that I did not fully define "religion" in my opening statement. For this reason you may wish to revise your arguments in r