Muslim mafia

It seems to me, in the aftermath of the latest terrorist plot hatched in London, that Muslim extremists have very little to do with religion and are more like the mafia than any other organization we know of. They deal in human life as if it had no value at all, opulent lives and deaths (funeral arrangements for mafioso, screaming passions for Muslims) being their most highly regarded reward. Both groups have leaders that own the lives of their underlings: If Don Ayatollah sends you out on a "hit," then you go, regardless of danger to yourself, while he sits safely in his suite. As well, the inference that every law-abiding Italian-American had to live with is now being felt by law-abiding Muslims — they are suspect by virtue of their heritage. Any Muslim who wants to live at peace with the modern world needs to take notice of this. It is human nature to lump the majority of a group in with the worse aspects of its minority. This is how we develop stereotypes.

Terrorists are Muslims in the same way mafioso are Catholics, and I doubt God will be pleased with either of them. The weakness of a works religion is that the world is forever undermining your works. If you're busy trying to do good, as you define it, and the world (i.e., the people) around you only heap more temptation at your door, the only reaction left to you is hatred. Of course you're going to hate the people trying to drag you into Hell, and the best way to end the temptation is kill the people. So the last error is worse than the first, unless your organization just doesn't value human life. But the world goes on anyway, regardless of how many you hate or kill, and the only way to save your weak religion is to make it grind to a halt in the year 632 (or perhaps 1950), that simpler, gentler time. Works are useless to change the nature of people or the world at any point in history, but the grace of God through Christ is stronger than all creation.