muslim cleric recants, page-3

We tend to forget when discussing religious matters and trying to compare different religions that it is the people behind the religion that count rather than the doctrine itself. Religion is just a tool used to assemble the masses and can be interpreted and turned in many different ways. There is nothing that one religion has done either rightly or wrongly that all other religions have not done at some time in their past.
I feel any excesses carried out in Iran after the fall of the Shah were done to counteract the perceived excesses during his rule. A bit of overcorrecting after understeering on a dangerous curve.