Salafist =/= Al Qaeda.

What!? Of course al Qaeda is Salafist. Sayyid Qutb was heavily influenced by the movement, especially by Rashid Rida.

And yes, Arab culture has been spoken of (not the wider Islamic culture).

Where and to what extent? After all, Nazi propaganda talked about, to take something at random, the movie M. Yet few would say the Holocaust was motivated by Hitler's belief that Fritz Lang is overrated.

When did bin Laden or anyone in al Qaeda say they did it because they hate McDonald's?

I didn't say they did.

I'm sorry for the misinterpretation, but your writing indicated that it was one of the products they complained about. Which brands DID they complain about?

There are, of course, some extremist groups that attack corporations like McDonald's for watering down the local culture. Breton nationalists spring to mind off the top of my head, but there are others. However, they don't aim to cause as many casualties as possible, including people who don't work for or support said corporations. A far cry from ramming planes into buildings, blowing up mosque-fulls of Shias, or killing 800 Yazidi in the second deadliest terrorist attack in world history.

Why do they hate Shias and Yazidi, by the way?

Well, it would seem obvious to me that American foreign policy influences American actions in the ME, which influenced those who attacked on 9/11.

It is indeed obvious that a nation's foreign policy influences its actions in the realm of... uh... foreign policy. But you're getting ahead of yourself when you claim that the hijackers didn't like the fact that America imports Middle Eastern oil. Indeed, Europe imports more than we do, since we get a lot of ours from Canada and Mexico.

Now if you wanted to argue that American oil policy prevents Salafists from restoring the caliphate and that THAT is the reason al Qaeda hates America, I'd agree.

I'm slightly off topic, but if we only care about oil, why do we help Israel?

'We' don't. America does.

Even more off topic, but American Sign Language has two ways to say "we". One is referring to a group that is not in the room. The second refers to whoever in the room is included in the term "we". I was using the first.

In any case, it's clear that American Middle East policy is not purely motivated by oil. Even if it was, it doesn't change the reason al Qaeda launched the attacks. Those reasons were religious.

When did I say their motivations were non-political?

Sorry, I meant "non-religious".

I cited political, social and economic reasons.

Not really. Correct me if I missed something,* but I didn't see you actually quote or cite any writings, speeches, or propaganda videos.

Anti-semitic sentiment in the Middle East is a result of Israel's existence, not the other way around.

Antisemitism existed in the Middle East centuries before 1948. It took different forms than Christian antisemitism, but to deny it existing long before the first Aaliyah is just plain wrong.

Israel is hated because it is seen by many as a foreign, unwelcome interloper in Arab lands that was founded unilaterally and using the same tactics that, when undertaken by Arabs, are called terrorism.

I can't tell from your writing if you believe this tired stuff. If you do, I'd be willing to have that discussion at a different place, because there is a whole lot wrong with that astonishing generalization.

Well, America isn't currently bombing the shit out of Germany and her neighbours, nor South Korea and her neighbours.

We're bombing Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia? You should tell someone.

Certainly you don't mean Iraq. Al Qaeda also wanted to fight Iraq after they invaded Kuwait. Indeed, it was the Saudis' rejection of his aid that started the whole thing. And considering the group's mass murder of Iraqis, I'd find it hard to believe any tears Zawahiri or bin Laden shed for Operation Desert Storm's accidental civilian deaths were not the crocodile ones.

Nor do American fear-mongers and pundits spend hour after hour trash-talking Buddhism or Lutheranism (for example).

Wait, I thought religion was not a big motivating factor?

Not sure where these roving bands of Lutheran terrorists or the armies of non-Tamil Buddhist plane hijackers are. If you alerted these pundits I'm sure they'd be on the case. Make sure to tell them about the secret bombing campaign against Abu Dhabi and Cairo too.

I would hardly say that one Egyptian = many.

Thank you for pointing out the error. My point still stands. People who are angry that foreigners are in their country simply because they are foreigners would not invite Egyptians, Lebanese, and Emiratis. Al Qaeda's problem with the foreigners is that they are not Muslim.

Salafis know bloody well that they are hardliners, and they also know that the majority of Muslims are not.

[Citation needed.]

And who are you referring to when you say "Salafis"? Your definition is clearly different from every major scholar's, since it doesn't include the most important Salafist organization ever, so I'm not sure who you're talking about.

Well, the Qur'an makes it clear that[...]

Religious texts often contradict one another. People visiting r/atheism should already know this.

Required reading.

Under Muhammad's tenure as ruler in Yathrib, the Constitution of Medina (which included the Jewish tribes of Banu Qurayza, Banu Qunayqah and Banu Nadir) allowed for each group to follow their own faith.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

The Constitution of Medina? You mean the one Muhammad broke two years later?

Banu Qurayza? You mean the tribe whose men Muhammad and his followers slaughtered, whose women his followers raped, and whose children he sold into slavery?

Banu Qaynuqa? The tribe that Muhammad expelled?

Banu Nadir? The tribe that Muhammad also expelled months later?

Whatever site you got that from is written by borderline genocide deniers.

Monotheism, as opposed to polytheism, was the real object of Muhammad's statement concerning one religion.

[Citation needed.]

Kuffar derives from the Arabic triliteral كفر which includes the idea of willful concealment, of hiding something.

As often happens with slurs, be they religious, sexual, or racial, the original definition is not the one currently used. "Faggot" originally meant a bundle of sticks. "Kike" comes from the Yiddish word for "circle". Only sociopaths would argue that those terms are not offensive.

Anyone even slightly familiar with Islamic fundamentalism has heard modern speakers use "kuffar" or "kaffir" when referring to non-Muslims or read Muslim writers use it from the first caliphate until modern times. This isn't controversial.

*I don't mean for that to sound as snobby as it does. Excuse my shitty writing skills.