Kenyan Churches Targeted by Islamic Extremists

This news article is from about three weeks ago, but given the violence occurring in Africa by Islamic extremist groups, it felt very relevant.  If you click here, you will see an article about how churches in Kenya have been targets by an Islamic extremist group out of Somalia.  Since April, there have been 14 churches attacked and many of the churchgoers have been "killed, injured, or maimed" in the struggle of Islam versus Christianity.  Many of the churches believe that their government has done little to stop these attacks, so they are now sueing the government for "the destroyed churches and lives lost."

In the US, there has always been a struggle between religion, although this level of violence has rarely been seen.  I recently spoke to a friend of mine who is Atheist and got her point-of-view on the events that have been happening in over 20 countries around the world.  She said to me that she believes it would be better for people to "dump the whole religion thing," at least where there are large congregations of people.  She said "That lone zen buddhist meditating? Not likely to kill someone over...words in a book."  Although I am Catholic and will not be "dumping" that anytime soon, I believe she does make a good point.  Much of the conflict has started based on a section in the Qur'an about disposing of anyone who doesn't worship Allah and the Prophet Mohammad.  So essentially, this violence is created because a group of people are listening to a book.  Yes, it's a sacred book that represents their religious beliefs, but it is still a book.  If the Bible told me that I needed to kill anyone who didn't worship God, would I listen? Absolutely not.  Many Muslims don't listen either, but the few who do are creating an awful lot of violence in the world.  It is amazing to me that these types of actions have been repeated over and over again, and we've yet to learn anything from them.  I watched the video that supposedly sparked these worldwide riots, and I have one thing to say about it: It's the most stupid video I have ever watched and it's not worth all this violence.