These types of threads always discourage me when I see the overt bigotry on such display. I have a bit more background than others in this area (it doesn't make me an expert but gives me perspective) as I have worked in a number of Muslim countries in North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Without exception, the people I have worked with have been friendly, courteous, and just normal folks like you and me. Almost all were Muslim, some devout (e.g., would interrupt meetings to pray, actually we continued talking while different people took turns going into the corner to pray), some were not devout (a good friend in Bangladesh who had an alcohol collection par none). A real eye opener, and one in my naiveté I really didn't expect, was when I worked several weeks in the West Bank. In my opinion, the Palestinians have very legitimate grips against Israel (it cuts both ways, not saying it's one sided), but without exception, when I talked to them their greatest desire was just to end the conflict and get on with their lives. Not a single radical among them, just normal folk. I'm not naive myself, I know there are lots of bad people out there, and lots of bad people who claim the mantel of Islam and who use this mantel for their own purposes or deluded means, but I don't see them. I just see normal people like you and me struggling on a day to day basis to live and derive some happiness from their lives. They're not saints or devils, just . . . people covering the entire spectrum of bad to good, just like here in the good ol' US and just like everywhere else.
Now, there are definitely things about some practice of Islam I don't like, particularly how it hyper sexualizes and, in my opinion, oppresses women. I frankly hate this, and it's hard for me to see it. I have hope, however, that this will change over time, particularly if Islamic countries can ever figure out the balanced economic growth thing and women get more education, participate more in the economy, political, and social life--the same gradual change we went through here. Some countries I have higher hopes for than others. I reasonably certain, though, that isolated the Muslim world will not accomplish this objective. As I see it, the biggest risk, and greatest cause of the West's problems with Islam, is the aimlessness and lack of jobs/opportunities among its young men, which makes them quite susceptible to radicalization of older, evil, manipulative men. Women do get radicalized, but dime to dollar you see an example of Islamist terror/violence, and its a young man in 20s or early 30s. Then there's also the old guard, hard core traditionalists not well suited to moder life, much like you see, in my opinion, among the old school Evangelicals in the US (one of the hot beds of bigotry in this country, though not defining by any means of the enire group).
I could address all the other arguments that I think are faulty in this thread (e.g., atheism at fault for mass murder--this is one of the biggest red herrings), the pass given to the widespread nature of Christian bigotry, oppression, and violence, that moderate Muslims are not speaking out (they do but you're not likely to hear about it from Fox news) and so forth. But I'm just so sick to death of people painting an entire population of, literally, billions of people by the bad deeds of a small handful.
