@ECGadget, a very well presented write up, yours was, thank you for taking the time and effort.
A conclusion I can make then, is that the radical fundamentalist Muslims intent on the establishment of Sharia throughout the world is around 3'000'000 strong (from global intelligence statistics*) making it a little less than 20% (roughly 18%) of all followers of Islam. These intelligence figures don't give the location of this minority but safe to assume many of them are living in predominantly Islamic countries or under the Sharia already.
That's 1 in 5 followers of the Prophet Muhammad who are against non-believers or our societies in general in some way shape or form and a few of which are actively engaged in a Holy War against whoever they perceive as the enemy of Islam, be it the West, media, critics of Islam or whoever. That's a mighty large proportion, even if the a tiny amount of that 20% act on it.
Can I assume that these people have interpreted the Qur'an in a way that has lead to their radicalisation and violence and that the rest of the world's Muslim population are the Muslims who follow the Qur'an as a way of peace?
Because 20% is a huge amount. And I can only hope that those figures are incorrect, but we have to assume that they are correct until proven otherwise.
I have personally witnessed life in an (unofficial) Islamic part of the world where the Sharia is loosely imposed against the will of government (Kaxgar, Xinjiang). The people there acted very civil towards me because their assumption was that I was of a neighbouring ethnicity and and Muslim, I do look very much like their race of people (Turkic Uyghar). I didn't at all feel threatened carrying out my daily business for the week I spent there there, except once.
My Chinese counterpart, however, within his own nation was vilified and often mildly harassed by the locals for being Han, the same race as the government imposing restrictions on Chinese Muslims. When shopping for groceries I was greeted and he was ignored and snarled at just because he shared race with the state government. He grew up in this region (Xinjiang) and went to school with many Muslims and has never said a bad word about them despite most Han openly disliking the Uyghar minority.
Upon indulging in
my culture's pastime I was immediately noticed as an outsider and was confronted. I had been having a few beers in a Chinese owned and run Hostel and had just gone outside the door for a smoke and hadn't even considered leaving my beer on the table. Yes, unknowingly to me I had engaged in breaking local, unofficial law (Sharia). The first few people that spotted me were woman who stopped across the street and began to make phone calls. soon after other passers by had begun to stare at me and shout things I couldn't understand. I am, by my own admission, an asshole sometimes and being drunk I took little notice of these people. Within the time it took me to finish my smoke (a few minutes, beer still in hand) I was mobbed by a group of young men who began ranting and raving at me in a language I didn't know. Luckily the hostel owner was quickly on hand to suppress the issue and explained to me what was happening and escorted me back inside to safety. Being drunk I didn't feel scared at the threat of this mob but I certainly did feel threatened by their numbers and obvious hatred of me for making a simple mistake. One might argue I was ignorant of the culture but remember that I'd lived in this predominantly atheist country for 4 years previous and had never once not been able to drink outside of a private setting.
That's just one experience I had while in Islamic territory. The others we all quite pleasant. I do understand that this scenario is as much linked to territorial disputes and the censorship of religion by the PRC Communist Party, but it was the way in which my friend's race and my cultural habits we used as reasons to get aggravated and cause a commotion which showed evidence for the lack of tolerance within this community. I was also refused a haircut by all but the one Han barber I could find once it was evident I wasn't Muslim and often refused service in restaurants because of the race of my companion.
I had a great time in Kaxgar despite these incidents and I won't hold what a small part of the culture has done as a view on all of it.
It does seem unfortunate that those that claim Islam is peaceful and tolerant are overshadowed by those using Islam as a right to wage war, harbour hate and commit crimes in the name of Allah or Muhammad. If the figures from the global intelligence agencies are to be believed then we're dealing with almost 1 of every 5 Muslims, as mentioned before, that believe their way of life is the only way that can be 'correct' and must be imposed on everyone.
What would the world be like if 1 in 5 of the 840'000'000 (estimated) Atheists decided to act upon a single cause against a particular culture, thought process or way of life? That's like 160'000'000 people all united in their cause to instate a law banning veganism. Things would get very messy unless somebody was able to intervene.
As much as I want to believe that Islam (or any other mass religion) is peaceful and accept the given evidence the fact is that there will always be an element of fundamentalism when people have strong, unshakable convictions. From football hooligans to religions fanatics violence is often the method of choice for conveying a message and getting what they want. This isn't exclusive to Islam, of course, but it does seem that the number of Islamic fundamentalist Imams inciting followers to use violence for their cause and for their gains outnumbers that of other groups who also believe that their God/ world view is the only absolute correct one. As long as there is an element of violence that is prevalent in Islam it will never be considered a religion of peace by some, in the same why that human beings in general cannot be considered peaceful because of of the element of violence that exists within mankind as a race, despite the millions that are peaceful.
*The Global intelligence Agencies I refer to for statistics is unavailable for me to quote at present, but I've read the same statistic from many different sources so I assume it to be correct.
Edit: Thanks to
@TenEightyOne for pointing out a crucial flaw in my numbers. It should be 1.8% not 18% that a radical fundamentalists, making the first few paragraphs up there largely inaccurate and irrelevant. If 18% were radicals we'd be looking at around 300 million, not 300'00. My apology.
) who follow the way of their religion without the need to literally interpret it into modern life. That includes muslims, incidentally.
It's 1.8% providing your 3,000,000 figure is correct, I only checked that there were still 1,600,000,000 Muslims.
