This fanaticism is what feeds terrorism. And this is precisely why Muslims must play an active role in opposing hate sermons and incitement to terrorism and extremism in their mosques.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Islamist terrorism is a cancer on Islam, and Muslims themselves must fight it at our side.
Every Muslim leader must unequivocally proclaim that terror committed in the name of Islam violates the core tenets of the Prophet Mohammed, and they must do so repeatedly. Period.
Setting aside moral considerations, those who flirt with hate speech against Muslims should realize they are playing directly into the hands of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The terrorists' explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of civilizations - telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion.
The way to tackle Muslimphobia is to tackle prejudice against Muslims. What it is not is to pretend that Islamist extremism does not exist.
The hatred Muslim extremists feel against the West feeds on certain conflicts in the world.
Our work in Britain suggests that radicalization is driven by an ideology which claims that Muslims around the world are being oppressed and - and this is the key bit of the argument - which then legitimizes violence in their supposed defense.
Again and again, when Westerners are perceived as denigrating Muhammad, the Koran, or Islam, Islamists demonstrate, riot or kill.
That's because international Islamic religious fanatics have the same goal as the Axis fascists - the destruction of our way of life.
The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism.
Moderation is part of faith, so those who accuse Muslim schools of fostering fanaticism should learn a bit more about Islam.