I'm aware of the Spanish Inquisition and Louis XIV-esque religious wars. When the last of the Papal States fell in the latter part of the 19th century, that pretty much brought an end to the era of religious statehood and expansion in Europe, combined with the HRE going away.

With respect, mate, you're missing what I'm saying. Note I pointed out that Christian religious aggression petered out over the successive centuries to now, particularly after the New World took shape, where's it's almost non-existent. As opposed to Islam, which has always spread like a cancer. What I'm getting at is that (the vast, vast majority of) Christians no longer force their beliefs on others, let alone butcher those that are of different mindsets. A lot moreso in first world countries, than third world countries where pretty much anything goes anyhow.

I've SERVED in Iraq (with some Aussies I might add, swell fellows! :) ), so again I've seen it with my own eyes. Islam is severely intolerant of Christians hence why Chaldeans and coptic Christians have been persecuted and killed for hundreds of years (See current conflicts in Libya, Egypt, and Syria). Conflicts such as the situation in Ireland/Northern Ireland began as mostly a religious conflict, but over the decades it's morphed into a national pride struggle and religion is an afterthought.

You didn't see Christians stringing people up on crosses like the Ottomans did to the Orthodox Armenians in the beginning of the 20th century. Ataturk wanted a western, secularized albeit still Muslim Turkish society, and that's what he succeeded in doing, up until now with Erdogan and others starting to more and more embrace traditionalist Islam stance and that's not good news.

WW1 was a powderkeg because why? Christian/Muslim relations in addition to other localized issues which culminated in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. WW2's origins had nothing to do with religion, so I'm not certain where you're getting that from.

Okay? Comparing a third world, semi-civilized, chaotic country like that to places such as the US, Britain, Australia....these people would never do anything like that anymore. That stuff went away generations ago.

But, things like THIS disturb me...and reinforce my earlier point. Islam is a cancer, and an idealogy stuck in the 7th century whereas Christianity and Judaism have all evolved and continue to evolve with time.

I'll just leave this here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qxjocm5fCc

Then you're ignoring the numbers. I'm not great defender of Islam, neither am I a defender of any religion. They are all as insidious as one another and to say that Islam has more blood on its hands than any other is patently ridiculous. The facts do not support your claim.

Christian aggression may have morphed over the years, as it has with many religious aggression, but is still alive and well in many parts of the world including the US, Britain and yes even here is Australia.

If you think Northern Ireland's religious division has dissipated, you may want to look a little deeper into facts surrounding that conflict.

There are several million people murdered in an industrial manner during WWII who may disagree with your assertion that WWII had no nothing to do with religion. Were you aware of the Croation extermination camps, run by Catholic Ustasha under their dictator Ante Paveli, a practising Catholic and regular visitor to the then pope? In these camps - the most notorious was Jasenovac, headed by a Franciscan friar - orthodox-Christian serbians (and a substantial number of Jews) were murdered. Between 1942 and 1944 its estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 were murdered in these camps. Many of the killers were Franciscan friars. The atrocities were appalling enough to induce bystanders of the Nazi "Sicherheitsdient der SS", watching, to complain about them to Hitler (who did not listen). The pope knew about these events and did nothing to prevent them.

Iraq and Afghanistan are both not much more than current day Crusades with "Christian" countries forcing their way into "Islamic" countries and determining how they will be governed.

As to your Turkish example, what is different between that and the KKK's activities? Strange fruit indeed.

In terms of tolerance, your words belie a distinct intolerance, particularly towards Islam, though you are not specific about which branch of Islam you are talking about, Sufi, Shia sunni or Kaffir. That may or may not be due to your first hand experience in Iraq and Saudi, but the lack of tolerance is distinct in what you've written.

I myself, am very intolerant of ignorance.

Back OT, regardless of the killer's religious background, they are simply murderer's who in the eyes of the law are guilty. The appeal should it go ahead will still fail for reasons already stated.

Sentence is due today and I hope it is a 'whole of life' tariff.

Their behaviour in the dock today was disgraceful and only reinforces/confirms the type of (insert suitable expletive here) they both are.

http://news.sky.com/story/1217714/wo...eing-sentenced

Whole life and minimum 45 years sentence.

Good. Though I hop we don't see parole boards of the future giving them any leniency.

And you poor sods got to support them and their guards for the next 45 years. Could have saved the country a lot of money if they were hung instead.

True that but British law currently won't allow it so I'll settle for what they got...then they can both rot in hell!!

Ya, I know. Canuck law is the same and IT SUX!