What to think about Islam?

I am not a Muslim. I am a Christian. 

Thus - for obvious reasons - I do not know the intimate details about having a religious affiliation to Islam as I do as to Christianity. 

However, I do have an education in the study of religion and do read the newspapers and follow steadily in the news. And I do see the different profiles we, talking from a Danish point of view, are fed up with about Islam and how we are being told how to think about Muslims. 

Now, talking from a Christian perspective, I do have some fingers to point towards the things I think people have too much attention on and too little. For instance, I think Christians are generally too concerned about getting a family and very little concerned about those who don't. We talk too much about "Of course you will find the one" and too little about "What if I don't?". Or, what about the subject of sex?! I refuse to believe that the ones trying hardly to keep up the facade as the "I waited until marriage" that they did not in any way have sexual feelings towards their husband before they married! How about we talk a little more about that instead of having yet another "so this is how I am as a parent/husband"-reference in yet another sermon. (I will admit that I might have had a little too much bottled up here and some of the examples maybe can only be followed by fellow Christians, but I hope you get the point). 

Therefore, I am a Christian, that do find faults in the Christian milieu I tend to move within. Because in the end I believe we are all human. We all make mistakes. I believe that if we could be perfect among one another, God didn't have to interfere. But enough about what I believe and back to the "society critics" I am supposed to be doing in these Monday blogs. 

I find that society today tends to point a little too much on the Muslims as terrorists, radicals and dangerous. So, when Pope France stood up and refused to point his finger at fellow Muslims, I believed he pointed towards a general flaw in our society. A flaw in the way things are moving regarding compassion for other human beings despite religious, political or cultural affiliation. I found his comments relevant. Because, I know some politics wants me to believe that everyone who affiliate with Islam are dangerous, because Islam is a violent religion - but the thing is, I have met a lot of muslims that acted and believed in peaceful co-existens between Muslims and Jews in Israels. So why is it we cannot have the same main idea in Europe? Why is it that Muslims should be to blame for a violent culture, when Europe was the one that have destroyed tribes and cultures in the Middle East and Africa historically? What about all the crusades that took it to be their mission to take back Jerusalem? Haven't Christianity been a violent religion too? 

I do not believe that religion is to blame for war. I believe we as selfish, discriminating human beings is - and I believe we sometimes use religion as a way to authorise religion. But I also think that we sometimes use religion to authorise a certain view on a group of people who doesn't necessarily have a violent world view. 

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if this view that the media and the politicians often feeds us with is the very reason that some Muslims do come to regard a violent world view as the only way to make us respect them - a common respect I believe we all have the right to have.