Pops, I am glad you weighed in. I think this is the crux of the matter in a nutshell:

Soon after Newsweek published an account, later retracted, of an American
soldier flushing a copy of the Quran down the toilet, the Saudi government
voiced its strenuous disapproval. More specifically, the Saudi Embassy in
Washington expressed "great concern" and urged the U.S. to "conduct a
quick investigation."

Therein lies the hypocrisy when one reads further what that government is/has been doing. I was unaware of the Wahabis and what they stand for and the article was illuminating for me. If the desecration of the Quran had been true, it was the act of one man and I think it unfair to judge the entire military or an entire country on the actions of one man and our media here in the US did not downplay it.

I think that most people realize that there are bad Muslims and good Muslims as there are bad Christians and bad Jews, etc. By that I mean imposters who are religious in name only and what they practice has no resemblance to what their religion teaches. Jesus called them whitewashed sepulches - clean on the outside but decaying on the inside. I just find it so hard to see the US blasted and our troops blasted when we live in a country where we do have freedom and our sons and daughters are fighting and dying. So many people seem to forget that the freedom we take for granted is not realized in other countries.

My only disagreement with your post is this:
if Christians today followed the EXACT teachings brought by Jesus, and if Muslims today followed the EXACT teachings brought by Prophet Muhammad, we would ALL be the followers of EXACTLY the same thing.

In essence the teachings may be similar however those of us who are Christians believe that Jesus is God and therefore cannot be considered just a teacher. He is the One sent by God to atone for the sins of humanity.

To further expand on what I just wrote, I feel it speaks to your statement in italics below. We do not believe anything was revealed to Jesus by God, as He is God.

the Bible is not completely in its 'original form' now. What I mean by that is we believe in what God revealed to Jesus, at that time, but people have changed things now, and it no longer remains exactly the same

Jesus said He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His sacrifice was once and for all and available to all who will believe.

Pops, I am definitely not disagreeing with you on most of what you have said. I am happy to be acquainted with such a bright Muslim as yourself and I think that many of us here at PT wouldn't have much of a clue about your religion if you did not post in these threads like you do. I appreciate your feedback and really do respect you.

Please don't think that I started this thread to incite anything. I was simply amazed and appalled at what I read and hoped to have some good, unemotional dialog regarding it. Lizbud I appreciate your post also. How in the world can we respect each other if we can't talk and learn from each other? We may not agree wholeheartedly with another's religion but surely we must respect their right to embrace it.