It is what the Quran says that is more significant. Here are some direct quotes from the Quran:

"If two men among you commit a lewd act punish them both. If they repent and mend their ways, let them be."

"Men have authority over women because God made one superior to the other."

"Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you that seeks their friendship becomes one of their number. God does not guide the wrong doers."

"You shall not kill any man for whom God has forbidden you to kill, unless it is for a just cause."

"It is no offense for you to marry your step-daughter if you have not consummated your marriage with their mother."

"Proclaim to the faithful who do good works that a rich and everlasting recompense awaits them, and admonish those who say that God has begotten a son."

"Those who say: 'The Lord of Mercy has begotten a son,' preach a monstrous falsehood."

"Those who delight in spreading salacious slander against the faithful shall be sternly punished in this life and in the life to come."

"You may put off any of your wives you please and take to bed any of them that you please."

"The unbelievers shall be sternly punished, but those that accept the Faith and do good works shall be forgiven and richly recompensed."

"Pay no heed and stand firm in the worship of your gods: it is a binding duty. We have not heard of this in the Christian faith. It is nothing but a false invention."

"God takes away men’s souls upon their death, and the souls of the living during their sleep."

"We forbade the Jews all animals with undivided hoofs and the fat of sheep and oxen, except what is on their backs and intestines and what is mixed in their bones. Such is the penance We imposed on them for their misdeeds."

"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you."

"The adulterer and adulteress shall each be given a hundred lashes."

"You may put off any of your wives you please and take to bed any of them you please."

"Prophet, enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers to draw their veils close around them. This is more proper, so that they may be recognized and not be molested."

"We will sternly punish the unbelievers, and pay them back for their misdeeds."

"God forbids you to make friends with those who have fought against you on account of your religion and driven you from your homes or abetted others to drive you out."

"God loves those who fight for His cause in ranks as firm as a mighty edifice."

"Forgive all the faithful, men and women, and hasten the destruction of the wrongdoers."

"When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly."

"As for those who are slain in the cause of God, He will not allow their works to perish."

"As for those that disbelieve in God and His apostle, We have prepared a blazing Fire for the unbelievers."

"Believers, do not choose the infidels rather than the faithful for your friends. Would God give clear evidence against yourselves."

"Because of their inequity, We forbade the Jews wholesome things which were formerly allowed them; because time after time they have debarred others from the path of God; because they practice usury--although they were forbidden it–-and cheat others of their possessions."

This means all Muslims are taught this stuff. The notion that this religion is moderate and that there are moderate Muslims is a form of being politically correct. In Edmonton, a community Muslim was on the radio being interviewed. He reported only 3% of Muslims are extremists and maybe 10% have a supportive view in favor of the extremists. By my count that is 36,000,000 extremists (3% of 1.2 billion). Using his own numbers, if there are 1,000,000 Arabs in Canada, there are 30,000 extremists.

Second, read the book "The Social Justice of Islam" by Sayyid Qutb. This is the Egyptian intellect who wrote many books from which the current Extremist are thought to form their opinions . . . not just from the Quran. He states "the Islamic belief is is that humanity is an essential unity, . . . and must be brought into one from the one true religion proceeding from Allah." These ideas fuel the jihad; not the oil, not the USA . . . rather everyone but Muslims. If you read 19th century history, there is exactly the same anti-British and anti-crusade rhetoric before there was any oil and before there was any commercial interest in that part of the world.

Send this to Michael Moore.

Thanks for doing what you're doing, America.

I have read a number of reviews of Updike's new novel that also mention books by Conrad and Dostoyevsky as providing interesting parallels. The one book I have yet to see mentioned is Doris Lessing's "The Good Terrorist." This is a serious oversight, it seems to me. Lessing's portrait of a group of largely ineffectual fringe-dwellers is totally believable. She shows with great clarity that it is never easy to tell where personal psychology leaves off and the commitment to some political or religious ideology begins. Her bumbling but ultimately murderous characters gave me the creeps precisely because she had realized them so fully. Add hers to the list of books on terrorism that are worth a look.