formerlyrbfromcalgary: I saw Bill Maher on Van Jones' CNN show ('The Messy Truth') yesterday evening. Maher, of course, is a critic of religion in general but notes that the specific problem with Islam in the West isn't terrorism and those who use it to promote their fundamentalist views but instead is that too many otherwise peaceful Muslims support their religion's rigid practices and ideology. Most Christians and Jews in the West have learned to put religion in perspective and view it as a strictly personal issue. The cure for religious discord and conflict in diverse societies according to Maher is strict secularism. In his view, there's no rational "progressive" basis for the accommodation of religious intolerance and medievalism in the name of tolerance. His perspective is undoubtedly compelling. I've long believed that the only basis for religious harmony between Muslims and others in the West is the development of a humanist Western form of Islam. I suspect Maher would agree.