Is any given religion likely to make one who believes in it a better or worse person than he would have been had he not believed in that religion?

Dennis Prager discusses in his most recent column:

... The third monotheistic faith is Islam. There are many millions of decent and kind Muslims in the world. But there are also at least a hundred million Muslims (i.e., 10 percent) who support killing innocents in the name of Allah and Islam. And there are more than that who believe in the ideal of using force to spread Islam throughout the world.

So the question is this: How many kind and decent Muslims are kind and decent because of Islam, and how many evil Muslims are evil because of Islam?

I do not claim to have an answer. I only claim that the question is a legitimate one that all the decent Muslims need to answer. The evil ones repeatedly tell us how Islam is the source of their support for murder and torture. We need to know from the good ones how Islam has made them good.

So far we have only heard from one side.

Reader ExChristian had a lot to say on this subject recently. A U.S. Muslim caller into Savage last night said that about 30% of the Muslims in his church were "extremists" who believe in the "convert or die" mentality, but the rest, including himself, think that the Bush administration has it absolutely right. We don't hear much from these folks though. The caller acknowledged that the 30% are very vocal and the 70% are fearful of what will happen to them if they speak up.

I sure hope the 30% number isn't accurate.

Dhimmitude.