I would like to reinsert this point in this conversation -
"Ok. Lets take the general atheist. What is his response to, say, burning the "God delusion [or any symbolic stuff - like spagetti monster puppets]" in sweden, the most atheistic country? Some outrage over religious censorship? Some criticism of encroaching on free speech?
Then we you take the general muslim from, say, Iraq. What is his reaction to burning the Quran? Beheading? Shooting? That's of course, if you are lucky. More likely public stoning or tortue.
Now why is there the difference between the reactions about desacrating something central to a person's beliefs if the difference is not religious?
Also, lets take suicide bombings.
The actual love of death and martrydom in Islam is well known. Now, this is, has to be, rooted in their religious belief in the islamic afterlife. Without taking religion into account, politcal, social or economic conditions alone CANNOT explain why well to do, well educated, smart and understanding young people would carry out the 9/11 attacks. Even if they were brainwashed into just an interpretation of the Quran [they weren't - quran clearly tells its followers to kill the kafirs], it is still religion that is at the core of their motivation. Religion is prone to interpretation, and while you may make the case for saying that interpretations of religions not actual religions as they are not how the scripture is intended, that may be ontologically true, but it is not practically true - since the person considered it his religion and his religion is an interpretation of an actual religion. Hence the religion, however good it might be, must take the responsiblity [though not necessarily blame] for any interpretations which it might create. All christians must take responsiblity for evangelicals, because catholic or protestant, they are still all christains; just as jihadist or moderates, they are all muslims."