[SauronOfMordor]

The two main sides here seem to be the people who think that Osama and the terrorists are abberations having nothing to do with Islam per-se, versus the people who think that Islam is itself the root cause of Osama's acts

I'm in the latter group. To me, Osama is a mosquito and Islam is the swamp that will breed an endless supply of people like him. Swatting mosquitos is fine, but eventually you have to drain the swamp.

[Luis Gonzalez]

That's about as good an analogy as we are going to get out of this, and to acertain degree I agree with you. But I would qualify your statement with the idea that it will be far easier to control the mosquitos, than to drain the swamp.

Hopefully, the sorts of changes that are about to happen in Iran, herald the overdue move of Islam out of its past, and towards the present, and we will not have to involve the world into a massive religious conflict.