Why do people hate Islam so much? What has Islam ever done to you?

Be careful not to assume too much and base your ideas on what you see in the media. I live here in the west and can honestly say that I don't know a single person who hates Islam. Most people know and understand that it is just a religion and that there are many.

I wouldn't say so much that I hate Islam. More like I have issues with much of what Islam believes and what they tend to do to anyone who would leave Islam for another faith. This in and of itself is enough for me to discard Islam because God in his very nature has created us as creatures of free will. Islam does not support the concept of free will. God did when he put the tree of knowledge of good and evil on earth. Islams creed it seems consists largely of concept, convert or die. This is by itself is enough to prove it needs to be in fact discarded.

In answer to your question, Islam has never done anything to me personally. This is because I live in a country (Ireland) where women are given protection under the law, adultery is not a crime for women and my testimony as a woman's is equal to that of a man's (for the testimony of 4 men, 8 women is required in Sharia law). The thing about Ataturk's version of Islam is that it should never interfere in the state. This is why displays of religion such as the hijab/niqab or veil are banned in public buildings in Turkey. Fundamentalists are not approved of in Turkey thanks to Ataturk. however his vision is in danger because as you must know, Islamists won a victory in the elections.... Also, the Wahabi brand of Islam seems to be spreading and taking over the moderage branches. Most people of the west have no concern regarding the live and let live types of Muslims, its the ones who want an expansionist Caliphate we have good reason to fear.

I have a couple of really good Muslim friends actually, and I don't have any problem with their religion. They've explained a lot of the things that I had questions about, and there are many of the things that are bad that people think about really Islmanic things that originally came from Arabic culture. So it's not really an issue of religion at all, as you have said. I'm really happy that I've had the chance to meet and get to know people of many different religions, because it makes me more of a tolerant and compassionate person, I feel. =)

I don't really care what Islam is about. I put it into the same category as Catholicism. IF there is ONE TRUE religion it is far from either of the two.

Because people tend to confound Islam itself with the behavior of a very few who pretend to act in the name of this religion and its 1300 millon of believers. This is just as dangerous as it is to confound Christianity with the group of those who call themselves Christians but approve of war, social injustice, destruction of Earth and the species, etc. Ignorance is the worst enemy of tolerance. Tolerance does not mean that I agree with other religions or that I abstain to preach my faith in Jesus Christ, but it means that I do respect other's believes and will try to convince them by force of arguments only. As to Islam, history shows us that encounters between the two religious groups have been frequently violent, in terms of territorial expansion more than in spiritual terms. Sadly, Christians limited themselves to answer Arab and Turkish conquests by means of war, being the Crusades the most famous but not the last intent. At no time of her history, Europe has been only Christian. The horrible events in Serbian, Bosnian Kosove war, are only the newest manifestation of a long story of mutual hate. As there never have been significative Christian missions among muslims, not even when their countries where colonies and open to be evangelized, the true responsibility for the actual situation, is with Christians. We are the ones who pretend to be moral and good and to teach God's word to the nations. Well, regarding Islam, we never did this, so some people's hate for muslims is just another prove of our own failure.