Northern Irish here. We have a cultural division that aligns roughly with a religious division. The political leanings of Unionism and Nationalism stem from that cultural division - the historical inequalities and injustices. Religion is not the source of the division.

Sometimes it has been part of the problem. It has encouraged the establishment of separate school systems for Catholics and Protestants and it has been used a tool by the extremists to give legitimacy to their violence.

Sometimes it has been part of the solution. It has given emotional healing to victims, and it has motivated community leaders on both sides to push for peace.

I'd suggest that the same is true of most conflicts that you think of as stemming from Islam.

In actual fact, it's pure tribalism. When you are born into one tribe, you adopt the cultural aspects of that tribe. Those include the religious denomination and political beliefs, including hating the other tribe.

In Northern Ireland, religion is correlated to political belief because the two major tribes are divided along those lines. Nobody who believes Northern Ireland should be part of the UK does it because of their interpretation of the Eucharist.

And you could say exactly the same about Islamic terrorists too.

Both of you are confidently offering absurdly simplistic explanations.