Agreed. But you could have made the same claim about German bashing before they invaded Poland or Jap bashing before Pearl Harbour. JAT

Edited by TheJudge (28 Apr 2015 1.23pm)

Prior to the first Gulf war the Iraqi forces massively outnumbered the Coalition forces, and was the 5th largest army in the world.

28 days of carpet bombing later...

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

I only use that example in the context of the so called bashing of a particular group of people.
I would liken the Muslim extremist threat to the one posed by the IRA. Very few members in reality but nearly succeeded in assassinating a government. I suspect that although a large proportion of the Catholic population condemned the violence, a significant minority secretly supported it or at least didn't actively oppose it.

The Provisional IRA, were for the most part drawn from the Catholic population, due to the nature in which they split from the Offical IRA. However, none of the major factions in the Republican movement were Catholic per se, they were typically left wing nationalists (IRA and INLA were Marxist). The Provisional IRA had a much more distrustful view, being drawn primarily from the areas of Protestant Catholic sectarianism, and formed from a schism with the Offical IRA over their failure to respond to 'burning out' of Catholics by protestant gangs such as the UDA.

Whilst the conflict in Ireland had sectarian divisions, it wasn't really about Protestantism and Catholic or really driven by those factors, its more that the factions were drawn from those communities.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

There are estimated to be c.26 million catholics and c.31 million protestants in Germany,of whom a reasonable number could be presumed to be "religious" to some degree.Based on your assertion (which you state is "fact", presumably they are no less (or more) easily led than followers of any other religion...or does your "fact" only apply to followers of Islam in your opinion?

My point was not about "threats".Merely responding to your "factual" assertion that followers of religions are in your view easily led.Recent history in Germany and former Yugoslavia ,for example,shows Christians can be as easily led (or not) as anyone else.

To the extent to which "The Troubles" in N Ireland (which had been posted about by someone else,not me) were rooted in historical protestant/catholic conflict ,it was arguably not so at odds with the catholic/protestant and catholic/orthodox antipathy in many parts of Europe historically (and not so historically in former Yugoslavia)and in that sense very much not just an isolated phenomenon.

I note with interest your equating of Muslims per se with "terrorism" and "fundamentalism". Not entirely dissimilar to the old tarring of any and all communists and socialists as the international "threat within".