“The information coming out of the UK about this sets the number of honor murders yearly at 17,000 world-wide.”

You are wrong.

The report states that up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to “honour” related violence, such as kidnapping, beatings, and sometimes murder.

And the overwhelming evidence supporting the claim that Islam and democracy are incompatible: There are no societies in which Islamic values and democratic values work together.

All 57 nation-states of the IOC provide evidence that refutes Mr. Feldman’s baseless optimism. The degree to which any of these states embody democratic values is directly related to the degree to which they suppress the influence of Islam in public life (Turkey throughout much of the 20th century) and/or the degree to which those countries have non-Islamic religious and cultural influences, either from minority populations or from their pre-Islamic traditions that still have an effect on local attitudes (Indonesia and Malaysia).

In both Turkey and East Asia, the trend is toward more Islam, which will lead to the loss of rights and freedoms for religious minorities and women and further limitations on free speech and free expression of religion.

Nothing more clearly depicts Mr. Feldman’s foolishness than the constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq that he played a major role in drafting. By including a provision that no laws can be made that contradict Sharia (Islamic) law, Mr. Feldman effectively nullified the entire democratic, egalitarian and pluralistic wording in those constitutions. Thus it is consistent with Sharia law that apostates and critics of Islam receive death sentences as we have seen recently in high-profile cases in Afghanistan. The only reason those harsh judgments have been overturned or commuted is the desire of Kabul to continue receiving American aid, not because the rulings are contrary to the Islamic values of the Afghani constitution.

Simply put, core Islamic values such as jihad, the status of the dhimi, the role of women, the superiority of Islam over all other faiths and Sharia law are completely incompatible with Western notions of democracy.

That the New York Times gave Mr. Feldman space in its Sunday Magazine to turn a personal slight or misunderstanding regarding his Jewish high school into an indictment of Orthodox Jewish values is highly irresponsible. That Mr. Feldman then chose to tie his perceived rejection by his high school alumni newsletter—not having his picture with his non-Jewish wife published (or was the crime disrespecting a Harvard Law professor who has the power to use the Times for payback)—to an alleged relationship between Orthodox Jewish values and the rare act of terrorism committed by an Orthodox Jew (Baruch Goldstein) and the assassination of Rabin certainly makes him unfit to practice law in any legal system in which evidence and logic are required.

However Mr. Feldman, who can portray two high-profile incidences of barbaric political violence in the mid-1990s by Jews—notable at least in part because these types of acts by Jews are so rare—as arising from Orthodox Jewish values, cannot seem to make the connection between the many thousands of terrorist acts committed by Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001 with essential elements within Islam that are fundamentally at odds with Western values. He goes to great lengths to convince his readers that the Muslim clerics he talks to are struggling with the relationship of religion and democratic politics just as are Rabbis and other spiritual leaders…and he cheers the election of Rep. Keith Ellison, whom he compares to a Muslim Joe Lieberman.

Pretending that Islam as it has been understood, interpreted and practiced by Muslims throughout the past 1300 years is compatible with democracy doesn’t make it so. Much work has to be done—by Muslims themselves—beyond setting up elections, introducing parliamentary government and writing constitutions to transform Islamic politics, religious practice and attitudes into something that is democratic in nature and can peacefully co-exist with non-Muslims.

Pretending that a marathon is only one yard long doesn’t mean that after a few steps you are close to the finish line. As long as Mr. Feldman is considered a serious voice on Islamic issues, his fantasies regarding Islam will continue to endanger women, non-Muslims and Muslim apostates living in Muslim-majority countries while preventing the Western nations from taking the necessary steps to protect itself from those it should rightfully view as posing a threat to its core values.

Islam nowadays resembles Marxism, but that’s because Marxism too is a blind faith, albeit an atheistic faith. Mao, Pol Pot, and the Kims crushed politics. Chavez is trying to do the same thing but has failed, so far.

Jews and Christians today no longer have blind faith. The Bible commands us to execute witches (Exodus 22:18) and homosexuals (Leviticus 20:13), but you cannot easily find a Christian or a Jew who will advocate a return to the days when people accused of witchcraft and homosexuality were hanged or burned.