Tawfik Hamid a historian and a man very sympathetic to Islam, writes that Muslims need to reform their interpretation of the Koran. This is incorrect. Islam, the cult of submitting to Allah and Mohammed [it is obvious that both are one and the same], can only be reformed if the Koran and the Hadiths are completely rewritten and a new emphasis placed on the Golden Rule, rationality, individuality, good deeds, tolerance and perspective. Given the laws of Blashemy within Islam this is highly unlikely [see below].  Hamid does however list the main elements which cause Muslims to murder 350 innocents in uncontrollable violence and hate, because a Civil-War hirsute pastor burnt their vaunted deity-created text in Florida. These factors include:

1. Tolerating - in several parts of the Muslim world the use of violence, when it empowers religious values, gives justification and prepares some Muslims psychologically to use violence or resort to its use to express their religious views and opinions.

2. Undervaluing the life of Non-Muslims- traditional mainstream Sharia Law books teach that the monetary compensation for killing a Non-Muslim is half of that of a Muslim. This is an important root cause for disrespecting human life and justifying attacking and killing Non-Muslims.

3. Failure to use Islamic Education to empower certain Quranic values that can prevent such violent reaction. These include "Not punishing someone for the mistakes of others" (Quran 35:18) and "respecting human life" (Quran 5:32).

4. Individual Thinking- There is a failure of the educational systems and Media to encourage individual thinking instead of the mob or "Umma" mentality. The latter way of thinking suppresses individual thinking in favor of the thinking of the group around him. This makes that person more vulnerable to participate in such violent acts.

5. Failure of legal systems to make the Mullahs who incite hatred and violence responsible for the outcome of their teaching. The violent response against the UN personnel occurred after Friday prayer. It is vital to know what has been said exactly in the ceremony that could have led to such brutal demonstrations.

6. Failure of the Islamic scholars to denounce the terrorists (NOT terrorism) in strong words that are powerful enough to deter Muslims from participating in acts of violence. Using expressions to describe these acts as being "Un-Islamic", or "No religion will justify such acts" are too weak to deter Muslims who are driven by religious zeal to participate in such violent acts.

Islam was spread by war and terror, so with all respect to Mr. Hamid it is highly unlikely that a cult following of Mohammed, who himself said that he won Arabia through the use of war and terror, is about to renounce the same. Sura 38 makes it clear that Mohammed is the greatest of men and the only one who should be imitated. In fact the Hadiths by Bukhari go to ridiculous lengths informing the reader of Mohammed's every movement including, those of his bowels; his exact positions of prayer; how he ate; when he flatulated; where he looked while cleaning himself and the utterance of every word and grunt. Mohammed is the central character in Islamic theology and is the same in my view, as the Allah thing which supposedly manages every action, deed, thought and occurrence in the world, every second. Mohammed is in actual fact the Allah force who will govern all that you do. Such a deep cultural belief is not going to be eradicated by 'fatwas' as proposed by Mr. Hamid. Only a reformation will do.

The problem is that Islamic theology was codified in the 12^th century and all debate shuttered. There is no possibility that it will be reformed any time soon without a takeover by rational Muslims who understand that Islam is in dire need of an Enlightenment rebirth. In reality however this will never happen. Why? Even to suggest that the Koran needs a rewriting is a blasphemy and sin in Islam, punishable by death.

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;” [Surah Al-Maidah 5:33]. In Islam, a person who has committed blasphemy can either be killed or crucified, or his opposite hands and feet can be cut off, or he can be exiled from that land. On the other hand, in other religions there is no other option except capital punishment. Islam at least has four options of punishment for an act of blasphemy.”

Blasphemy in Islam includes ridiculing the Koran, Mohammed or any part of the Islamic theology. Hence when the Bismarck imitator pastor Terry Jones burns the Koran, infidels – any infidel – must be made to pay with their lives even if Mr. Jones himself is punished or killed. So if the O-Messiah Mr. Obama personally crucified Mr. Jones in homage and appeasement to Islamic 'sensitivity' that would not stop the rampage. Mr. Jones' act by itself, according to Islamic theology, is one done by 'infidels' and thereby all non-Believers can and should be 'punished' according to Sura 5:33.

the issue with Islam in my untutored-infidel view is simple. It is not a religion but a cult. Cults usually don't reform themselves. They exist to acquire money, loot, power, control or women. Typically a cult is either crushed through war [the Druids, the child-sacrificing Carthaginians, the human-sacrificing Mayans, the Greeks at Delphi etc.], or an internal implosion. It is unlikely that Islam will self-immolate. That leaves only one option open to force this cult into change and a reformation. A fact which dearly offends the media-political-academic-cultural Marxist elite.