No they wouldn't have.....you might want to talk to Geert Wilder about 'discussing' Islam....who needs 24 hour protection for doing just that...and lets not forget anout the painter they killed...and our troops at Fort Hood who were targeted for simply being soldiers at their own base. No...discussion is not going to change the muslims from doing what they've been doing for centuries and they will continue to be on that march. Time and tide have not changed their agenda...now will it.
I agree with you that discussions with the militants would likely be fruitless but there are Muslims who have converted and who are not dead. Some of these are active Christian ministers and are doing marvelous things educating people about the nature of Islam.
Actually what we have been seeing the last 70-80 years is a reaction to the West having such an impact in the Islamic world. Most of these countries were fairly secular until the rise of the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s. Their governments were variously Ba’athist, socialist, Kingdoms all influenced heavily by the West with Islamists taking a back seat way back. Unfortunately, the corruption of those secularists paved the way for the Islamists claiming to be concerned about the People’s rights.