"Religion" is a totally man-made creation (vs. faith), so the subjective "religion" prevailing in central Asia indeed contributes to what is going on.
BUT, I don't let the humans off the hook who thus interpret their "religion" in hostile, violent fashion, nor do I subscribe to the view that, somehow, Islam is more inherently violent than any other absolutist fairy-tale belief structure. In the end, it is HUMAN BEINGS who decide what "must" be done to enforce their subjective opinions about what is expected of others. That is all religion really is anyway, a means of adversely judging the behavior of others and dominating them in the name of "God-given" authority! Any other lip service to the contrary is usually delusional nonsense! There are exceptions, but they are few and far between!
Any gringo who claims to know what is in the Koran when he or she cannot read Arabic is just full of it, for there ARE differing translations to English, and the present-day Arabic sources have been copied and re-copied over the years by multiple scribes who are BOUND to have injected their own "interpretations" of what they have written.
I have studied three separate "foreign" languages and was pretty fluent in German at one time, so I know what the drill is about translations. Even Muslims cannot agree on what is written in the Koran, so how can gringos possibly know? As with most religions, there are at least 2 factions of Islam (Sunni vs. Shiite), so how can we possibly think they are in agreement on ANYTHING? Jews will argue to death over what the Old Testament "really" means! Most "holy writs" are pure hearsay and are, therefore, utterly UNRELIABLE! In my view, Christianity is no more valid or credible than Islam or Judaism! It really cracks me up to hear self-described "good Christians" denigrating Muslims' belief in "Allah"! That foolishness happens ALL THE TIME! It's perfectly understandable for a woman to cover her head in church, but we will kill, or at least sneer at Hindu Sikhs for wearing a turban! Most Americans are just dumber than Hell and brimming with self-pity!!
We are fatuous in our assumptions about the various "holy writs"! In the end, we should examine what each INDIVIDUAL believes and expresses about the claimed religion. To attempt to draw blanket conclusions about what INDIVIDUALS may believe on the basis of what we THINK is the meaning of whatever is total nonsense. Group-think is ALWAYS invalid. It is ALWAYS the essence of bigotry.
We are up against "it" in central Asia, and we have no business being there. We cannot begin to understand the bizarre dynamics there! Most of our "experts" don't even try! Crazy people are DEFINITELY in charge!
