Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

I agree every religion started off with violence especially the newer religions like Christianity, Islam , Buddhism and Jainism ...But most of these religions have sort of settled down ..

Most religions have now settled down, true, but not Islam. They still feel that only those who follow Islam have the right to live and the others termed 'kafirs' have no right to live on this earth. And so they keep either forcing their religion on others or try to wipe them out via violent means. Hence the war like situations in most Islamic countries! If we read history of countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan etc. from the Pre-Islamic times, it is evident that these countries were quite peaceful and prosperous, only after the advent of the Islamic religion in these countries, the decline has started. For a religion which was born in the  harsh deserts amongst blood thirsty tribes, what else can be expected??

Certain smaller nations or kingdoms like Dubai , Baharain and Abu Dhabi have realised that they need to move with the times and have broadened their outlook inspite of being totally Islamic in their outlook . Everybody is happy to live there including the westerners because of the freedom you have. It is the Indian sub continent that seems to have the worst face of Islam which seems to have become even more dangerous and extremist in the past two decades.