Is the religion Islam to blame for extremist/terrorist activity?
Since 9/11 the world has become topsy turvy and the western world cannot understand the anger and hatred shown towards it by Al-Qaeda and similar other extremist organizations. This has resulted in a backlash from the West towards the Muslim world. In times of phenominal crisis such as these a reaction of this nature is not unusual. Remember the Japenese being imprisoned in California during the World War?
Contrary to popular belief and media speculation a vast majority of 1.6 billion muslims in the world (including five million in the U.S.) are moderate human beings busy worrying about making a decent living, sending their kids to school and putting food on the table. They are themselves sick and tired of the extremists.
For nearly 100 years Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA) was involved in terror tactics. But Catholic Christians around the world were not held to account for their activities and quite rightly so. To do otherwise would have been an injustice and a travesty. Similarly a vast majority of Muslims do not wish to be painted with the same brush as the terrorists. A large number of Muslim countries feel that the U.S. and the West rather than going it alone, should join hands with them to marginalize the extremists.
