To many patriots in the United States during the American Revolution, Catholicism was an evil religion whose precepts were fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Yet I don't think very many Americans would concur today.

Religious dogma is as much shaped by the current cultural norms as it shapes them, something that many religious leaders are loathe to admit.

Your statement reminds me scarily of something I read relatively recently in a book by a conservative Christian author. The sentence, to paraphrase, was along the lines of "I'm not saying all Muslims are extremists, but the threat of Islamic terrorism is so high we should kick them all out to be safe."