The early story of Islam:

• Muhammad is born in Mecca around 570 AD. Parents died when he was young.
• Married later in life and claimed he had a vision from "Allah" saying he (Muhammad) was "Allah's" last and only messenger.
• He began preaching that "Allah" is the only god and that he (Muhammad) was the only one who knows what "Allah's" will is.
• The people in Mecca rejected Muhammad and so he moved to Medina.
• While in Medina he gained converts to his new religion and ultimately gained political and military power.
• Muhammad and his followers spread Islam in the Arabian peninsula by the sword, i.e., either convert or die.
• If a "follower" changes his mind and rejects Islam - he can be put to death.

We need to remember that Islam is not just a religion it is a political movement. Many muslims do not believe in a separation of church and state - they believe the laws of "Allah" should be the laws of society. With this in mind we need to make a clear distinction between Islam and other "religions".

This Islamic movement threatens to kill people for drawing pictures of a MAN - a man named Muhammad. What do you think about killing people for drawing a picture of a man - should we be concerned?

This Islamic movement raises children to believe "Allah is happy if they strap bombs to themselves up if they kill non-believers. What do you think about people who train children to hate and to commit suicide - should we be concerned?

This Islamic movement is reported to have 1,600,000,000 followers but let's assume they are exaggerating - let's assume it is "only" 1,000,000,000 (that's 1 billion) - should we be concerned?

If less than 1% of the followers of Islam believe in these extreme measures how many people does this add up to? 1 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000 or 10,000,000? It adds up to 10,000,000 people who believe you should kill someone for drawing a picture and who train children to blow themselves up - should we be concerned?

Any questions?