18. Why should I respect Islam and its adherents? They are suicide bombers, cruel towards ‘sinners’, patronizing towards women, follow conservative medieval social norms and sanctimonious people who look down upon others who drink and smoke?

You are under no compulsion to respect Islam and its adherents. However, you must certainly analyze what you hold in contempt.

The very word ‘Islam’ (from the Arabic silm) connotes peace. According to a tradition of the Prophet:

Peace is Islam. (Musnad al-Bazzar, hadith no. 1396)

This means that peace is one of the prerequisites of Islam. A hadith states;

A Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands people are safe. (Musnad Ahmad, hadith no. 12561)

One of the attributes of God described in the Quran is ‘As-Salam’, which means peace and security. According to Sahih Muslim, the second most authentic book of Hadith, suicide in any capacity is completely forbidden and a punishable sin:

It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah observed: He who killed himself with steel (weapon) would be the eternal denizen of the Fire of Hell…and he who killed himself by falling from (the top of) a mountain would constantly fall in the Fire of Hell and would live there for ever and ever. (Sahih Muslim, hadith no. 109)

In addition, the Quran makes a very clear statement:

…whoever killed a human being, except as a punishment for murder or for spreading corruption in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all mankind. (Quran 5:32)

It is true that some Muslims are engaged in violence in the name of Islam, but these violent activities are quite against Islamic teachings. Islam in its very essence connotes peace and there is no association of a peaceful religion with terrorist movements at all. You have to judge Muslims in the light of Islamic teachings, and not vice versa.