My answer to the OP question is with a question of my own:

Is any religion compatible with a modern, tolerant, society?

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that the religions of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam are all about as intollerant and not compatible with modern society. But that is only if they are followed incredibly strictly and exactly what they originally were followed like when they were created.

Any religion can exist in a secular modern society but the people need to mature and ignore the negative aspects of the religions.

Islam's problem today isn't the religion, but it is of some of the people and the culture of some of those people.

Very ture.

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"...Follow the crystal star to the pyre of the flame; there exists the dwelling of the spreading fire. The heart of this life rests upon the fate of that place, and what begins there sends a contagion to the rest of the universe.
As long as the fire burns we shall never be free..." (The Shadows of Yavara, Final Reclamation)

That is true, and as you say it is similar for all religions but I'd imagine that Islam also has a problem with the war that is being waged upon it in Palestine and Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and in smaller ways throughout the western world.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

That, whilst terrible, is an incredible rare phenomenon and sure it's something that society must deal with but we have many more "secular" problems in Britain especially with a growing gang culture and the knife/gun crime which goes with it. You say that "we would be naive not to react to this type of hatred preaching and let it get established on our soil", what kind of action do you propose taking? It's all very well creating laws against "inciting racial hatred" or "inciting terrorism" but can these things ever be effectively enforced? And is the best way to deal with extremist thought to shut out, make it taboo? This isn't a problem with Islam or the west, it's just another of the long list of problems our society has, and any action should recognise this and be both effective and targetted at the problem.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

I am definitely not talking about the large majority of Muslims that immigrate to the UK, America and other western countries. However, just inviting them in and then somehow it is their freedom of speech to engage in the same old, same old infidel and Jew bashing isn't right. It is naive to think the preaching of hatred is unnconnected with follow through. I am not saying preaching this hatred in the west is common, but when and where it happens, it should not be covered simply as freedom of speech.

I certainly hear more muslim and Arab bashing than infidel or jew bashing. What are we to do with this much more sizeable percentage of the population? Is their freedom of speech to be protected? Is it only a muslim who should be punished for speaking their mind, even if what they say may be repulsive?

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Viva Fidel

If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

If we allow skinheads, we should allow radical Muslims. However, I believe that such people should be used as target practice anyway, so...

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"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...."
- The Declaration of Independence

I do not support Muslim bashing at all. And some of that falls under the categories of hate crimes. When there is serious Muslim bashing here in the US, it is typical to see non Muslims that may look mideastern by the bashers get targetted. For example, Sikhs are from India and have their own culture and religion. They have fought againt Muslims for hundreds of years. Yet they wear turbans, the men all beards, the women have head scarves. After 9/11 Sikh communities were targetted for hate crimes. Their temples were desecrated with grafitti.

True, but I think this problem is very small indeed, certainly compared with some of the other problem sin our society, completely sepereate from Islam and religion more generally. What we must avoid, or rather cease, is reacting in a way which is both disproportional to the problem and a "treatment" which is more harmful than the disease, we're talking hammers and nuts here. And infact what is a much greater problem is the demonisation of the muslim community by many in our society. An example would be this story, reported here by Fox news: FOXNews.com - Report: Schoolboys Get Detention for Refusing to Pray to Allah - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

Now, the story itself is unimportant really, two kids chose not to take part in a class role-play of praying in traditional muslim fashion and are punished. Seems obvious the teacher was wrong and kudos to the kids for standing up for their rights. But let's look at the reaction, most of the British media ran this, all the right-wing papers did, and even Fox news, a major American news network reported the story of two school kids unfairly getting detenion! Jesus H. Christ on a bike, was that really necessary? All opportunities are used to attack Islam without real consideration of the facts, that the story is non-existnet in any sense beyond a few days of school gossip, that the teacher was not muslim and that the Qu'ran says that religious choice should be free.

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Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg