On Islam, while I do NOT agree that it is a "religion of peace," all westerners should understand that Muslims are no more "devout" than 90% of the so-called "Christians" who do not practice their religion nor understand what is in the scripture. Now, from my perspective, this is good---it means that most Muslims either do not know that their religion calls for jihad (and this does men forcible conversion) or blood; or they just do not accept it (the way most Catholics do not, apparently, accept the Pope's rulings on birth control).
I've known, in passing, a number of Muslims and they just don't think their holy books call for "jihad." It is somewhat IRRELEVANT if they are wrong---it is more important to know if their view is the dominant one, and if Muslims, on the whole, are either mis-informed or simply disobedient to their own scripture. Either way, it then means they don't pose any threat to us---only the "obedient" and "obeservant" ones do, IF they read their own holy books the way I read them. (Again, this isn't always the case either: look at the differences between Unitarians and Southern Baptists.)
You make some good points. Personally I'm not sure what I think of Islam, so I just have to defer to people who know more than I do. Seems to me that if maybe 1% of Muslims are willing to do violence in the name or their religion. On the one hand that's a BIG number and we need to be deadly serious about protecting ourselves from that kind of huge threat. But on the other hand it seem unkind and unwise to get really pissed off at the other 99% who just want to mind their own business and live a peaceful life. As with most things in life, I guess we just need a healthy balance.