joko; //people starved while money was spent on cathedrals etc.//
Yes, and people still starve while expensive football stadiums are being built - what has that got to do with religion? Is your argument like, If the football stadiums weren't built, the money would go to the poor? and anyway didn't someone once say "For you always have the poor with you?".
birdie; You claim to have read the Koran, didn't you find any good bits in it?
To fully understand the Koran it, (I am told by someone who has read it in four languages), should be best read in Arabic. I am also told that it does not "encourage" violence, but it "sanctions" violence to counter violence. Something the Soviets earlier, then G.W.Bush, the British and other governments just don't "get" about Afghanistan. The soldiers sent in there are seen as violent aggressors to their country, way of life, and religion. Would you too not retaliate in similar circumstances?