Preface: I personally come from a Judeo-Christian background, and am not Muslim. This post is not criticizing Christians as whole as being violent, nor to promote atheism or any particular religion.
As Christian writer and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck explained, there are different stages of spiritual maturity. Fundamentalism - whether it be Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Hindu fundamentalism - is an immature stage of development. There are peaceful, contemplative Muslim sects - think the poet Rumi the poet and Sufis - and violent sects, just as there are contemplative Christian orders and violent Christian groups (and peaceful and violent atheists).
Muslims do not hold a monopoly on terrorism, as the Norwegian mass murderer, Timothy McVeigh, Adolph Hitler and those pushing for nuclear war against Arab countries (and torture of Arab suspects) show.
The Egyptian revolution demonstrated that most Arabic peoples want the same things we do: a freedom, prosperity and stability.
A major new poll reinforces these facts.
As Raw Story reports today:
New data from polling firm Gallup shows that out of all the religious groups in the U.S., Muslims are most likely to reject violence, followed by the non-religious atheists and agnostics.
Through interviews with 2,482 Americans, Gallup found that 78 percent of Muslims believe violence which kills civilians is never justified, whereas just 38 percent of Protestant Christians and 39 percent of Catholics agreed with that sentiment. Fifty-six percent of atheists answered similarly.
When Gallup put the question a bit more pointedly, asking if it would be justified for "an individual person or a small group of persons to target and kill civilians," the responses were a bit more uniform. Respondents from nearly all groups were widely opposed to such tactics, with Protestants and Catholics at 71 percent against. Muslims still had the highest number opposed, at 89 percent. Seventy-six percent of atheists were also opposed.