It is true that not every Muslim is a terrorist. A group of Muslims are extremists while others are peaceful and moderate. However, these two groups are not separated from each other. The line of demarcation between them is blurred. Actually there is no such line dividing the extremists from the moderates. They are all Muslims. The difference is in degrees and the strength of their faith. The extremists and the terrorists are those with stronger faith and the moderates are those with weaker faith.
Instead of thinking of Muslims as two separate groups, moderates and extremists, think of them as one group gathered around a fire. Those who are farthest from the fire are the nominal Muslims. The nominal Muslims are the average Muslims whom we are most familiar with. They could be our coworkers, our business associates or our neighbors. They dress like us and live like us, their children play with our children and they are working hard to put food on the table, pay their mortgage and live a normal life. They believe in the five pillars of the Islamic faith, some perform prayers, and some don’t. They may fast during the month of Ramadan and if they can afford, they go to pilgrimage in Mecca at least once in their lifetime but most don’t, even when they can afford it.
As you move closer to the fire you find Muslims becoming more attached to Islam, they meticulously perform their religious obligations, they read the Quran, regularly, go to the mosque, pay zakat, eat only halal food, dress Islamicly, believe in conspiracy theories about the Jews running the world, hate America, have not read Noam Chomsky but recommend his books, see the world divided in Muslim/kafir dichotomy, rationalize suicide bombings as legitimate fight against “oppression”, etc.
As you approach closer, you find the fanatics who are consumed by their zealotry and become terrorists and Jihadis. These people are all Muslims. The only difference between them is in degree of their adherence to Islam. There is no guarantee that a moderate nominal Muslim will remain moderate always. He can become attracted to the fire of zealotry and become a terrorist overnight. All it takes for nominal Muslims to become terrorists, is that they face a crisis. And if they are young, there is a chance that they become extremists and even terrorists. As long as Muslims look at Islam as the ultimate source of guidance, there is a risk that anyone of them become a terrorist in a heartbeat.
The history of Islam is a history of intolerance, violence and discrimination. There is no such thing as “tolerant Islam”. The real Islam is the radical Islam. What is known as the tolerant Islam is "less-Islam". Islamic societies are tolerant to the degree that they are un-Islamic. The more they practice the Quran, the more intolerant they become. http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina50502.htm
Not all Muslims are terrorists—
I would take issue with that. There is active, and passive, terrorism.
Would you say that the Germans who supported Hitler, yet never personally killed anyone, were less than Nazis? Were those who lived in towns just outside of the concentration camps, and smelled the humans burning in ovens, ‘good’ Nazis because they didn’t tend the crematoriums?
How is ‘Sieg Heiling’ a picture of Hitler every day not the same as holding ‘holy’ a book that calls for death and destruction for all things non-Moslem?
Why does guilt by association apply to almost every crime there is-aiding and abetting’- yet not to Muslims?
They are also enemies who stand and wait for their armies to conquer.You are what you believe.