Thanks for the reply but I think you've also got to look at both the sides. The fault can't just lie with the west, in that they hate us because they need a bogeyman and right now muslims are the perfect bogeyman. I try to spend a good amount of time listening to and reading the concerns of those who hate Islam or have a problem with muslims to try to understand better why they believe what they do. Like in Europe migrants come from all over the world (though right now it's mostly muslims thanks to the conflicts in ME) and their problem is primarily with muslim migrants. They appear to be more tolerant of migrants who aren't muslim. Then there's the fear that number of muslims are increasing in europe while the number of christians are decreasing. There's a fear that Islam can become the majority religion in many European countries over the coming century mainly due to muslim immigration. This is a huge problem because people fear Islam is completely antagonistic to European culture and beliefs. They fear everything from halal meat to women in burkhas to the shariah law.

My issue here doesn't lie with the west. I believe if suddenly a large number of poor uneducated european migrants started emigrating to the Middle East and other parts of the muslim world, the muslims would react the same way or maybe even worse (considering how poor record of human rights most muslim nations have while on the other hand countries like Sweden and UK have been exceptionally tolerant of muslim immigrants). So my issue is with muslims. Why has Islam become a religion people fear than one people like and respect? Everyone loves buddhism, sikhism, hinduism and most other world religions while it appears many people fear and dislike Islam. We've all seen examples of it and it's very easy and lazy to turn your head around and say "well it's all western propaganda" or "we're simply the new commies" or whatever. That's too simplistic an answer. It's more relavent to ask why? Why is it that Islam is the one religion everyone choses to dislike? Once we get better answer to this questions, we can find better solutions to this problem. If the answer is simply "because we're the new commies/jews" or "because the western imperialists want our oil" or worst "because of Israel!" then absolutely nothing can be done to change this situation but unfortunately all I keep hearing from the muslims is this stupid rhetoric over and over again...