One thing I ran into in the Obama campaign was persistent rumors that he was a Muslim. I always thought it was pretty dumb that people were actually convinced of this, but it took me a while to realize that the real problem is what they don’t say, but surely think: they think that he’s Muslim and therefore a bad person.

I wish more people were at least marginally familiar with Islam. It’s a peaceful religion with a few fundamentalist nutjobs who interpret their scriptures in bizarre ways. Really not unlike Christianity.

There are two major sects, the Sunnis, with 85% of the Muslim population, and the Shi’a, accounting for around 15%.

Jihad itself is an interesting term. Thought to refer to “holy war,” it’s actually an ambiguous term referring to anything from holy war to a “struggle to improve one’s self and/or society” (per Wikipedia). And even when it does refer to holy war, there are lots of restrictions: it’s not supposed to include non-combatants, for example.

I don’t know half as much as I’d like to about Islam, giving its increasing importance in the world. But I do wish that more people would at least stop labeling all Muslims as terrorists.