Source: forbes.com

It took Christianity hundreds of years but the faithful finally learned to stop killing over spiritual differences.

Israel should be criticized as a nation state, not a spiritual representation of the globally dispersed Jewish people.

Doug Bandow, Contributor

Vicious strains of Buddhism and Hinduism operate in Sri Lanka and India, respectively, but are localized phenomena which rarely reach beyond their own societies.

However, the problem of violent religious intolerance is almost uniquely Muslim.

In contrast, Islamic persecution is global. In most countries in which Muslims constitute a majority religious minorities suffer discrimination and persecution. The rare exceptions are nations such as Kuwait and Turkey, in which Christian churches generally are free to operate and Christian believers generally do not face private violence. Even in these nations there are serious problems and limits—on the right to proselytize, for instance.

One can argue why Islamic states so often brutally mistreat their most vulnerable citizens, but there is no disguising reality. If you are a Baha’i, Jew, Ahmadi, Christian, Yazidi, Hindu, wrong kind of Muslim, or atheist you likely will find life difficult and even threatening in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Sudan, Yemen, Maldives, Syria, and others. The other worst persecutors—North Korea typically tops the global list, with Eritrea and the… read more at forbes.com