Wow, no one has ever said "you liberals" to me, I kinda like it... Actually, I am aware of slightly misquoting you, I guess you are more for getting rid of the religion in the people, not necessarily the people in the religion (though if push comes to shove I guess you would say that sometimes it may be the necessary answer). Also, I am not aware of "survival of the fittest" being a particular liberal ideology, though not being part of any particular club or anything I can't speak for all of us. I am not a big fan of the survival of the fittest idea in any way that I can immediately think of. I realise that it works on a sort of basic level, but that particular side of Darwinism is challenged to an extent, and if I am a bleeding heart lefty I am probably all for large amounts of money being spent on welfare of disabled people and stuff, which is, like, not really in keeping with me saying, like, survival of the fittest and stuff like that y'know, man? *takes a big toke of weed and strums blowing in the wind while looking at pictures of flowers*
Anyway... I definately understand where you are coming from, if Islam (I don't pretend to know anything about it) does advocate killing of others, there is a problem. Relatvism makes sense, but there are points when interfering of cultures is not necessarily being imperialist. However, Christianity survives, because ideals that have gone along with it change, and the bible is interpreted differently. I realise that the BIble says "thou shalt not kill" but it has still been used as justification for mass slaughter (think, crusades), and ill treatment of others. Religious texts, I think, need to be seen more as moral viewpoints of another time, philosophical texts akin to Plato, etc. We take on board many ideals, but choose not to follow other laws, like those ones mentioned in those emails about selling daughters into slavery, not planting two crops in the same field, working on sabbath, and so on. Christianity has moved on, and among more liberal muslim societies (like afghanistan before the Taliban came to power) so has Islam.