[Abraham]

Originally Posted by The Avon Lady

It's the people AND the religion.

Anyway, there is nothing new under the sun.

Wise words, Avon Lady!

We might understand the relation between the three religions involved a little bit better when we generalize a little bit and consider this:

The Jewish religion has strict rules and commands for everydays life. It is not a missionary religion.
The Christian religion was in the very beginning not much more but the Jewish religion, accepting Christ as the Messiah and adapted for non-Jews.
It dropped the rules (Love fullfils the Law) of Judaism. Because of its target group it is a missionary religion. It was a minority religion in a vast state; the Roman Empire.
The Islam came about 600 years later. It was the religion of a small Arab tribe in a stateless desert. It much from the other two religions, like a strict set of rules and commands from Judaism and the missionary character from Christianity.

Furthermore we should realise that mankind tends to fight between themselves and that it is an interesting but unsolved question whether religion promotes fighting or limits fighting that would have happened anyway...

Judaism had no interest of spreading all over the glode and converting others. It basicly says: Let us alone and we won't bother you. Under that condition religious Jews are quite capable to integrate in other and modern societies. In their own country, Israel, they fight of course fierce battles about the relation between State and Religion.

Christianity could spread over much of the globe without too many problems and violence (some mostly state-induced, but still surprisingly little) because one could convert in one's soul and continue living as an integrated part of one's historic society. Just stick to the Ten Commands and accept the authority of the state, as long as it gives you the basic freedoms that Christianity needs. This finally led to the modern concept on separation between State and Church, to the benefit of both.

Islam is missionary but imposes a strict set of rules upon others, the Sharia, the strict Quranic law. Since Islam was conceived in a stateless society it has some state-like features itself: the Sharia supersedes all local legal systems, the Islam is foreign to the principle of separation between State and Church (=religion). All this leads to a rather violent religion, violent in it's missionary drive and violent towards people with other believes and convictions.

Islam as such just does not fit into the modern world as we in the West know it. This causes frictions. Our basic attitude: "They can be here and believe whatever they want as long as they leave us alone" does not work. Islam is fundamental in it's strive towards a Caliphate where ever Muslims live. Modern Islam theologists and scolars have great difficulty with integrating the philosophy of Islam into Western society in a non-violent way and are not even sure that their concepts will be succesful. And modern Islamic scolars are a tiny, tiny minority in Islam.

There are only two solutions: Islam has to change drasticly to fit into our modern society, or our modern society has to change drasticly to fit into Islam.