[Itse]

My pet peeves in life is the need for people to say "This is because x" or "this proves that x is bad/good". As is usual in the world, there's a LOT of things going on here.

- A history (part perceived, part real, but very much real to the people who believe in it) of oppression and violence by the US towards many muslim countries

- Frustration over many things in their everyday life making some people prone to take extreme action towards anyone they can find to be blamed

- Lack of education, lack of personal and economical safety, lack of political means of influence etc. all of which contribute to people resorting to mob behavior

- Apparently opportunistic extremists taking advantage of a riot situation

- A bunch of people being idiots

Even if religion was partly to blame (and that's kind of a complicated claim), it would still be a rather moot point, because what are you going to do about that? Tell people to stop being religious?

Things that a US citizen actually could do that might contribute somehow was to advocate for a foreign policy doctrine that would absolutely stop propping up dictators and various warlords as means of trying to control remote areas. There are propably some groups in the US that try speak up for that issue. And there are propably human rights movements and democracy groups in those other countries that could use your money to try and help make their countries better places to live in both politically and economically. Etc.

Now, I'm not very fond of religions on my average days, but I've learned long ago that blaming religions for anything is just a waste of everyones time and tends to make things worse, not better.

It's a lot like saying "you're only doing this because your mother was a terrible person". It doesn't matter if that's true, it wont contribute anything in any case.