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Taheri is always a great read. He is correct in identifying that the culture of the Muslim world is very different from our own. Bernard Lewis, a Mideast Scholar has written some great books about Islam. His belief is that the Muslim world (most of it) never went through the enlightenment, industrial revolution and the great social and political changes of the last few centuries.

My point was that the "War on Terror" was really a war on Islamic Radicalism. To declare war on Islam in any form would fall right in to the hands of Bin Laden and the terrorists.

The percentage of Muslims that want to destroy Western Civilization is fairly small, but since there are over a billion Muslims, numerically there are large numbers of them. In most Mideastern countries, Islam is more than a religion, it is a huge part of the lives of the people. To openly attack Islam is not good strategy.

I agree that the silent majority of Muslims needs to stand up and reject the terrorists. This has happened in Iraq, but not so much in other countries. It needs to happen because the struggle in the Mideast is largely between Muslims. They need to defeat their own extremists.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years and read much about Islam and the history of the Mideast. Islam is a more complicated religion than Judaism and Christianity because it was spread largely through conquest. It has an elements that are more aggressive than other religions. Also, because that part of the world never went through the Enlightenment, separation of religion and state are not commonly accepted theories. Countries like Morocco and Turkey have moved closer to Western notions of separation, but Islam is still a force to consider in politics there.