I am in awe of the closed mindedness on this board. I have been to the middle east and I am a christian that believes strongly in my faith but to lump all of a region/religion into the "Extremist" camp is plain ignorant.
Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and Judaism have all had their share of extremists through history, look it up. It's a never ending battle that will continue as long as the world does. I've been to Iraq also and it wasn't for pleasure, I've seen the extremists first hand and like all extremists their belief stems from a fusion of ignorance and closed mindedness. It's a battle of the witless and frightened ON BOTH SIDES OF THE LINE, a bad combo IMO. If people would stop obeying the news, politicians and silly DVD's they get in the mail and deduce what is really happening for themselves their opinions might change. The only difference between a westerner fundamentalist and a middle eastern fundamentalist is that here in the west everyone has the option and resources to think for themselves. We need to take advantage of that power and not close our minds off. This blind hate is very disappointing and discouraging to those of us that believe here in America EVERYONE has the right to believe what they want, anything else is un-american and should be unacceptable.