On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:21:03 +0200, in a place far, far away, Jochem
Huhmann made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

(Rand Simberg) writes:

Insult Christianity, and the Christians just shake their heads.

First, when it's like that (and it isn't everywhere like that)

Where is it not like that?

this is
quite new. And when things have changed in the past few hundred years,
this was not because Christianity has gotton more reasonable, but
because its role in society has been sidelined to a very large degree
(and the Christians didn't like that at all, mostly). There are more
than enough Christians totally willing to remove the head of someone who
insulted Christianity if they'd get away with it. Has happened in the
past more than once...

The past is not the present. Again, this is exactly the point that
the Pope made.

Insult Islam, and get death threats. No, no difference at all.

Well, I think give Islam a few hundred years in a stable and prospering
society with guaranteed civil liberties and it will look very much like
Christianity in the more civilized parts of the world looks now.

I hope you're right. A few centuries is a long time to wait. The
problem is that we're not talking about centuries ago, or centuries
from now, but rather, the present.

Islam is just very much in the Dark Ages right now.

Which is my point.