Originally posted by Surtur
Here is the thing you don't get though. Christianity is focused on because that religion has a vastly larger effect on this country then Islam or anything else. You see Radical Islam is the enemy, but you say it as if it's the only threat. Christianity represents are different kind of problem, it's more subtle..not something physical.As much as people might be afraid of terrorists, Christianity has far more of an effect on the everyday lives of people in this country.
Also, consider location- Which atheists is one hearing from? American, sometimes European atheists, mostly, right?
I.e. they are people who grew up surrounded by Christians and are often former Christians. They focus on Christianity because it's what they know.
Atheists from Indonesia, Turkey, etc. will complain about Islam more because that's what *they* know. India? Hindu- and btw, I do a group of wandering atheists in India who travel around disproving mystical feats (stuff like sticking needles in the tongue, or pulling a vehicle with hooks in the flesh without bleeding) by performing them, and then explaining the science behind them.
To paraphrase one standup comedian-
"People sometimes ask me, 'you do jokes about all these other groups, why don't you do jokes about Muslims?', and I tell them,
'I don't do jokes about Muslims because I don't know anything about Muslims and neither do you.' "
Most English speaks know, at best, a very rough sketch of what Islam is like, and even of those who know more, they often only know about one or two particular cultures. An Indonesia Muslim- biggest Muslim culture in the world- is a fairly different thing from a Pakistani Muslims from a Turkish Muslim from an Egyptian Muslim.
Plus, of course, there's often big religion debates and groups within the same countries!
Consider, say, having a Mormon, a Roman Catholic, a Quaker, and a Southern Evangelical, and talking to all of them as if they all focused on the same things and had identical beliefs. Only, not even having enough knowledge of them to know what they had in common, but having to rely on second-hand accounts, and/or work on the similarities between it and Christianity.
That's pretty much where most people are. They don't *know* Muslims, let alone the real ins-and-outs of the religion.