A rant

Read this article: Anti-mosque protests on the rise
"In Islam, a mosque means 'We have conquered this country,' " one man told a local CNN affiliate. "And where are they? They're in the center of Tennessee. They're going to say, 'We have conquered Tennessee.' "

Dear Man informing the CNN affiliate, where on earth did you get that idea?  You have got to be kidding me.  Is that what all the Christian churches in Africa meant, or even the Spanish missions in California and Mexico? 
...Oh, wait.  Those were EUROPEAN people conquering and forcing their religion upon the inconsequential natives.  So that must have been ok.  And the fact that they were using Christ's message of peace and goodwill towards your fellow man as an excuse for cheap slave labor is no biggie either.

Please do not misinterpret this as an attack on Christianity.  I am Christian and I love being Christian.  I just don't appreciate it when others misinterpret my religion and use it as an excuse to push their own agenda.  Which I'm sure is how many muslims feel when fundamentalists and terrorists use their religion to further their own "jihads."  Let's have a little history lesson, shall we?

Much of the intolerance and "hate" that some associate with Islam doesn't even come from the Koran.  It comes from the Hadith which is supposedly things said by Mohammed, but it also contains many commentaries and opinions of leaders who came after.  All these sayings and writings were collected two hundred years or so after Mohammed's death, so whose to say how accurate they are really.  It is through these writings that Islamic law is born, along with the intolerance towards women and other religions.  (And the Hadith has been torn apart by many Islamic feminists who claim the Hadith is simply a corruption of the peaceful teachings of the Koran that has been reified over the past 1,000 years.)  There's plenty to be said on this subject, but if you're really interested in it, there's plenty more to be found on the internet.  Just be sure you're getting your information from an unbiased source.

Another point I'd like to make is the real definition of the word jihad, which is thrown about by the media every now and then.  Jihad means a struggle--it is a struggle for God to better society.  You can see how this can be interpreted in many ways, and clearly it is.  While some fundamentalist Muslims do believe that this is a call to war with other religions, many other Muslims believe this is an inward struggle with the self.  And how different is that from the Christian's struggle to overcome the natural man?

So my question is, why are so many good, Christian people so quick to cast the first stone?

You can agree with this or not, but I believe that you shouldn't judge an entire people based off a few dangerous fanatics.

All men should be free to worship how, where, or what they may.
The amount of religious intolerance in this country sickens me.