Islam? Muslin? Ever since 9/11 I've had a growing curiosity about it: What it is (besides another religion) exactly? What are its mandates? What does it preach (teach)? Those questions arise from the single inquiry, Why do Muslin's appear to dislike, despise, even hate, western societies, particularly the United States of America, so universally, with such intensity.
The above questions have all been arrived at while trying to understand how someone, anyone, could commit the acts of 9/11 against this country. Given the history of what happened after Japan attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the total destruction of their (Japan's) social/economic/political/religious and military structures as they existed, I could not understand how anyone could, would, risk reawakening the "Sleeping Tiger" as Japan had. Eventually it became abundantly clear I must look outside my own experiences and beliefs to find the answers. I did, and, I did (look and find the answers); and, frankly, it doesn't look good; not for us, the west, or Islamic nations either.
The problem, simplistically stated, is within Islam itself, arises directly from the text upon which the religion is based. The Koran (phonetically spelled). The contents are often ambiguous and not infrequently contradictory leaving much latitude for subjective interpretation. Skipping forward, bypassing the overwhelming volume of content and comparisons, there are a multitude of Muslin, Islamic, sects (like, similar to, Christian Denominations), all of which claim they tolerate other religions. In practice some actually do tolerate the existence of other religions with various degrees of restriction; and, problematically, most don't.
The facts that;
In the Koran, what constitutes a threat to Islam is left to the individual reader to define, can be anything that causes any harm to Islam, the religion, a person or nation, including disagreeing therewith; in the extreme, simply existing.