Islam's bad rap has only recenltly come to the for. I grew up in the 60s and 70s in the UK and I don't recall anything said about Islamic terrorists.I grew up in an era of terrorism between Catholics and Protestants in N Ireland, so called Christians were the terrorists.
The Irish Republican Army and Ulster Defense Association were commiting atrocities every week.Muslims were a hardly heard about apart from the usual middle eastern clashes between the PLO and Israelis.
The real growth in Sunni Islamic terrorism started with Bin Laden, who was a fighter backed by the USA only because he was fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.The Iranian version was a direct rejection of the US organised coup against the elected leader of the country in the 1950s.So the US is responsible for the birth of extreme Shi'ite and Sunni versions of Islam.

Lesson being ...stop interfering as it always backfires and comes back with an even more fanatical response. Bombing terrorism never works. It going to take some big climb down by the USA to stop this continuing,but the regimes in the US have a fanatical devotion to the state of Israel as well as Saudi Arabia,until that stops we will just see this escalate. Which is not going to happen any time soon,

I mostly don't like the term evil. However it's mislead how radicals are a small portion of the faith. Polls done in western countries with Islamic citizens suggest between 50-60% of Islam view women as inferior and believe Sharia law should be imposed in countries they occupied. The religion itself isn't any worse than others. There just needs to be an internal reformation of islam. Christianity doesn't read the bible in the same absolute way otherwise Christians would quote exodus21 and head down to the slave market.

Islam is just another Abrahamic religion drawing on the same stories as those presented in the bible. I think the major difference is that Islam hasn't had quite as much time to mature, to alter their ideology as much as Judaism and Christianity. If one goes back in time to the early days of blood and burnt sacrifice, killing and pillaging, one finds today's extreme form of Islam under a different name.

So, Islam is worse in that it hasn't grown up yet in some circles. That said, all religions are regressive in nature, some more than others. None of them do us any favors as a species. Tribal thinking is outmoded. My god has a bigger thingy than your god does is exactly what it sounds like.

Islam exists more in nations that do not have a tradition of justice and civil liberty.

My belief is that evangelical christianity would be just as 'evil' if it were equally unrestrained by society.

I combine it with all xstianity. No more, no less. Each has it's extremists, and yo are more likely to hear from/about the extremists then you are the run of the mill follower. Though, I just realized, I have never had anyone try to convert me to Islam, and have had many people be very pushy about the 'christ' orientated religions. Praise Bob.

... I'm still pissed about the Ottoman Empire... poor Constantinople... so young, so beautiful...

While on the surface they appear to be more violent or evil, I think it is much more complicated than that. Also, let's not forget that ISIS does what they do under the guise of Islam and in a very extremist way.

Some Christians shoot or blow up PP clinics. Some white Christians shoot up black churches. Most don't. To think that extremist groups like ISIS represent the majority of Islam is ignorant and dangerous.

To me all religions are "evil"...for lack of a better word...since I don't believe in evil.

All religions are evil. Islam is no better or worse than Christianity

My favourite Utube videos on this topic are those of Pat Condell. He tells it how it is. Sometimes he rants on a bit but he's also very entertaining and very 'cheeky' about it as well.

Yes, but I see all religions as evil! Christianity teaches that anyone who doesn’t follow Christianity will be tortured forever, while Islam teaches to kill people who doesn’t follow Islam. But I’m still doing my homework on a lot of regions, though to continue to educate my mind.

imho at the moment, Muslims are doing more evil than other religions, has not always been the case.

This is a good question. And relevant. I don't really know the answer. In the middle ages, it was the only one that embraced education. Christians were banning books. For a great read, please consider a book called "Jerusalem Jerusalem". It was written by a ethologist turned secular. I loved every word in it.

Every religion has its fringe group that does despicable things in the name of their religion. It is only a small group that commits unspeakable acts and make the whole group looks bad in every religion.

It's the 'In' religion to hate on but it's no worse or better than any other. ISIS and Al Quaeda have star power but as you read this there are roaming bands of machete armed Christians cannibalizing Muslims and Sikhs (not even a mild exaggeration it's what they are doing) in central Africa. There are militant Buddhists, Jainists, Toaists, even Norse Pagan Assholes committing violence to protect their religion from anything different.

Like all religion it teaches peace and love and tolerance but like all religion it's followers are the ones who take the teaching and turn it evil. Personally I think all religions are insane.

Vilifying any group, whether "a religion" or "other" is the first step towards persecuting its members. Beware this slippery slope, or giving legitimacy to the fomenting haters who pose these divisive "questions"!

Has the various interpretations of Islamic text, in modern times, contributed to more uneccessary suffering and deaths than the interpretations of Christian or other texts? Arguably, yes.

Is the extreme outcomes of the interpretations because of the text itself, or is it just how that area of the world naturally evolved because of society or climate or whatever? I don’t know

We can at at least take the actual words of extremists when they say they have done the things they do best use of the inspiration from Islamic texts. We can also apply this to Christian extremists too.

At the end of the day, I’d have to say that, currently, Islam is causing more problems, in terms of religious text being the catalyst to how people act.