As much as some Muslims would like to think of themselves as tolerant, they are far from it, particularly in Islamic States, where the country is ruled with a religious iron fist. Take Saudi Arabia, for example, where no-one is allowed to practice any religion, other than Islam, in public, and they freely destroy their own religious holy sites. In tolerant societies, historical sites are respected, not demolished, and all religions are allowed to exist and flourish. What would happen if India prohibited any religion other than Hinduism? Or the U.S. anything other than Christianity? The Muslims would be up in arms crying discrimination and racism.

And what about Iran. They are just as intolerant and eager to destroy anything they deem un-Islamic, at least their form of Islam, even if it happens to be Islamic in nature. The Sufis, though believers in Islam, are considered heretical by adherents of strict Salafism and Wahhabism, and they have been targets for quite some time in Iran. People have been jailed, lost jobs, expelled from universities because they practice Sufism. Property has also been destroyed. Several Sufi dervish sites have been demolished by Iranian authorities in the past few years, and Sufis in Isfahan worried their house of worship might be targeted, as well; which is exactly what happened on February 18, 2009. About 200 Iranian police, security forces and other agents confiscated cellphones and detained several worshippers who were there to protect the property, and then proceeded to bulldoze their hosseinieh, leaving it in rubble. Religious books were also destroyed when the library was demolished, which begs the question: isn’t it haraam to destroy a Koran? I guess it’s not, as long as the owners are considered infidels.

And anyone remember when the Taliban destroyed the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? Very tolerant of them, especially considering Buddhism existed prior to Islamic imperialistic conquests. The leader of the Taliban militia, at the time, undeterred by worldwide condemnation said “all we are breaking are stones.”

I wonder how they would react if people destroyed one of their mosques? Would they accept the fact that all people were doing was breaking stones?

Then you have the whole Sunni Versus Shiite Versus Wahabbi Versus all other religions going on in African Muslim countries, Iraq and all over the world.

Tolerant? What tolerance?!