It looks like al qaida may be behind the Spain terrorist attacks and we are sure to hear the usual blather about how nobody is opposed to mainstream Islam (or any other religion, for that matter), just the violent strain of it practised by these “extremists.” Any and all religions are OK, it seems, as long as nobody gets hurt.
This is the wrong approach to religion. It fails to take into account that religions claim tell you what the universe (including its creator, or lack thereof) is really like. Religions are worldviews. They cannot be judged pragmatically according to how we like them; they can only ultimately be judged as right or wrong, correct or incorrect.
Extreme Islam is not bad because it is violent, it is bad because it is false. If, in fact, the one true god of the universe wanted all American and Spanish infidels dead, and if, in fact, the only way to blissful eternal life in Heaven was to kill these infidels, then wouldn’t that be the prudent thing to do? Of course. The only ultimate reason it is wrong to do these things is that the one true God of the Universe is not the god of extreme Islam.