lr6,
i must applaud you for your honest and intelligent responses to all of us, in spite of the fact that many of us, myself included, have a very negative and bias position against islam.
my problem with islam is not the scripture and religion itself, it is those in 'legitimate' positions of power; high ranking clerics, government officials, group leaders, etc that call upon the koran and twist it to manipulate the rank-and-file muslims. they seem to have no problem with blind faith, and just absorb and agree with anything their leaders say, so long as it is done under the guise of islam and in the name allah. be it waging 'jihad', killing jews, killing americans, censoring books/news/music/movies/etc., oppressing other groups of religious people, using the palestinian/israeli issues to distract their people from their own dictoral governments. etc; these people seem more than eager to carry out the wishes of their leaders through such actions.
as for your friend, you should remind him that any religion that is primarily fixated on and around death should make one wary. maybe this excerpt can shed a little light on how islam was bastardized and how so many are more than happy to follow along.
"The Order of the Assassins was founded in 1090 by Hasan-I-Sabah at Alamut in Persia. (NOTE: the word assassin, meaning a political murderer, is a corruption by the French Crusaders of the word Hashshashin, meaning hashish eaters). According to legend (and the accounts of the explorer Marco Polo), the Order's alleged master, known as The Old Man of the Mountain, turned his desert fortress into a training ground for assassins by subjecting those who enrolled to various techniques of mind-control. In this way, he created devotees of an almost unimaginable loyalty - political killers of an Ismaili Order that was feared more than any other Muslim faction. But the Old Man wouldn't just promise paradise to potential members - he's show it to them. Candidates were first drugged with hashish until rendered unconscious, at which time they were placed in an artificial paradise. Upon awakening they found themselves in a sparkling garden where they were lavished with the sexual delights of women and treated to sumptuous feasts. After a few days of figs and f******, they were drugged again and removed from the garden. When they later awakened back in the harsh reality of the real world, it was explained to them that the wonders they described were but a tiny glimpse of the paradise that was reserved for martyrs who were willing to die for their faith in Allah.
With this type of conditioning, the Old Man cultivated followers who took a vow of blind allegiance and, hence, could be sent on various suicide missions...."upon his return to the "real world", over time and at the hands of artful teachers, the recruits original beliefs in Islam were replaced with a perverted version called the "Nizari Ismailis.""