Religion of What?

The perspicacious James Taranto notes a story on the removal of inflammatory religious books from our prison system, and wonders if political correctness is responsible for Christian texts being removed along with the radical Islamic texts that were the original target:

If the plaintiffs' allegations are true, it would appear that the federal government is trying to treat Muslim and Christian texts "equally," even though they are not equivalent in their effects on inmates.(Has anyone ever heard of a prisoner converting to Christianity and consequently becoming more violent?)

And really, it doesn't feel quite right to have the government judge religions, but these guys are just asking for it:

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - A Chaldaean Catholic priest and three of his assistants were shot dead on Sunday outside a church in northern Iraq, the local police commander said.

Brigadier General Mohammed al-Wagaa, police chief in the divided northern city of Mosul, told AFP that the cleric and his colleagues had been shot dead outside the Holy Spirit church in the Nur district.

"They finished mass at 7.30 pm (1530 GMT) tonight, and the four of them got into the priest's car to drive away. After they had gone about 100 metres (yards) a car cut them off. Four armed men got out and shot them dead," he said.

It's odd that I heard about these martyrs in church and not from the news media. (though I concede that the story could have been there and just escaped my attention.... did you see it?) But one thing I'm sure of, this would have been front-page stuff if it had been Christians murdering Muslim clerics.

And of course it's not just in Iraq. Any place you find Muslims you find murder. In Thailand they kill Buddhists, in the Middle East they kill Christians and Jews. Hell, they even kill other Muslims who they deem to be of the wrong flavor:

A man was walking across a bridge one day, and he saw another man standing on the edge, about to jump off and commit suicide. He immediately ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" the other replied.

The man said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?"

"Well ... are you religious or atheist?"

"Religious."

"Me too! Are you Muslim, Christian or Jewish?"

"Muslim."

"Me too! Sunni or Shi'ite?"

"Sunni."

"Me too! Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi or Maliki?"

"Hanafi."

"Wow! Me too! Do you follow Sheikh Fulaan al-Fullani or Sheikh Kaza Kazah?"

"Sheikh Fulaan al-Fullani."

To which the first man said, "What?!! Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.