This is a fine essay.
At different times in world history, the difference between Catholic and Protestant, those who take different sides in the debate over predestination, Christian and Jew, rich and poor, etc., has been taken to be a sound reason for war, murder, torment, and exile.
I am perfectly willing to criticize negative aspects of life and governance in various Islamic countries.
But I am unwilling to lump a billion people into the category of “deluded savage worshipppers of a slave-owner-god” who understand only violence.
Yes, the difference between Muslim and non-Muslim is, for some, a valid reason in the minds of far far too many these days to commit acts of violence.
But it need not ever be so– just as the difference between German and non-German, Communist and non-Communist, Catholic and Protestant, white and non-white need not.
Also, this reductionist view of a minority of Muslims ought not be trumpeted and embraced by the US and our allies.
Bad things have and will be done by bad people acting in what they believe, with apparent sincerity, to be the views of the god Muslims worship. And we have and will continue to fight those people.
But we must not lapse into the simple, damaging, errant belief that these differences are Now and Forever the Most Important Thing Ever in the History of World Civilization, and a global anti-Muslim jihad is an effective or appropriate way to handle the situation.
