All religions need to be done away with.

Ever hear John Lennon's song?

John Lennon's song Imagine was great. He also talked about imagining there were no countries or possessions.

Are you for that as well?

After you've been here a while, certain posters will rip you a new one for suggesting that all religions need to be done away with. Many here, your new friend included, are adamant that the need for and legitimacy of religion be defended at all costs.

secular dictatorship that represses any unapproved religious expression.

Although it is ridiculous to call that "tolerance". The message unspoken is that Kazakhstan too would be a hell hole of radical Islam absent its strongman.

and followers are targets of radical Islam.

At least the ones I talked to weren't, when I lived in Egypt from 2005-09. Some mainstream Sunnis considered the Sufis a bunch of cloud-headed con artists at best, or apostates/heretics at worst.

Every October the Nile Delta town of Tanta, Egypt hosts a big 8-day moulid (festival) in honor of the 13th-century Sufi leader Sayid Ahmed el-Badawi. His tomb and associated mosque are located there. It's a huge excuse to party and people come to Tanta from all over the Arab world.

When I asked some of my Egyptian Muslim friends if they were going to that festival, they looked at me as if I'd just offered them a steaming pile of pork chops.

Among other things I was told - the Sufis desecrate the Tanta mosque by dancing inside it and even having sex inside.

Huh? Now I'm just a gullible Western atheist, but I didn't believe that for a second. The invited guests at the Tanta festival included the US Ambassador to Egypt and his spouse. It was hard to imagine them condoning public boinking inside a mosque.

Long as I'm here - there's no guarantee that a tolerant Sufi will stay that way. One of the best/worst examples was a young Sufi who became famous for his poetry praising wine and romantic love. He became even more famous later as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - not exactly a guy usually associated with the word "tolerant."

Wow.

His point is that what people object to are not fringe aspects of islam. These are the things people actually believe even in muslim communities in the first world. The people in the video all live in Norway. He is saying these core beliefs of islam aren't the problem. He is saying the problem is the people bashing islam. This fellow thinks hes making a slam dunk awesome argument against critics of islam. He is so disconnected from reality that he doesn't realize he made our argument for us.

with the BS Islamophobia tag.

They stand for the execution of homosexuals and supported the Charlie Hebdo terrorists. While they certainly represent a certain faction, I don't think they are moderate at all, but rather extreme.

is the majority viewpoint.

I have to say that the governments (in all the 'Stans) are hysterical about the possibility of Jihadis infiltrating into the country. Border crossing are quite the hoot.

The people are free to practice whatever religion they want. The government just doesn't want the crazies to come in and disrupt the society.

Of course, 'crazies' can refer to the dictators that control said countries.

Not sure destabilization is the best future for this area.

But, as you point out, when the extremists are actually in control, that is the most worrisome.

The same is true for atheists, get a substantial atheist majority and fairly soon there will be a bias against the religious minority, we are all human in the end.

No one expects the apatheist inquisition.

Northern Europe are substantially atheist. They all seem tolerant.

An atheist al qaeda attacking the Petronas towers in Malaysia?

An atheist Inquisition forcing people not to believe? (*)

(*: In Stalin's Russia or Mao's China, it was a Communist Inquisition, not an atheist inquisition)

Replaces God with The Party. It's a simple substitution. A fully secular society with democracy has no such absurdities.

Democracy is meant to protect the rights of the minorities while representing the majority. Not always as easily done as said.

Again, ideologies and people are not the same thing. Hundreds of millions of people who call themselves muslim are normal, decent human beings. They are good folks because they are people, and not much steeped in religion. They just think that praying and giving to charity will get them paradise, and that's pretty much all they care about.

But people who are serious about Islam study the Quran and want to apply it. And that's where tolerant Islam ends: when people start being serious about it. Because the book itself is not tolerant. What is most remarkable is how many violent ayahs there are (about 3000), and how very few positive, constructive ayahs can be found. Wonder why there are very few quotes of sublimely peaceful and constructive quotes of the Quran in public discussion? Because they just are not there. Ayahs giving universal, wise peaceful advice are certainly far less than 1000, closer to 100, depending on how you count.

Same thing applies to the Old Testament which is violent too, but heavier on mythology.

in so many parts of its own texts, and in it's most fundamental beliefs, even the god they worship is intolerant. That's a fundamental problem of Islam.