Fairy tale alert: Please! No! Anything but choice # 7.

Their certification as official experts about Islam is based on their skill in constructing politically acceptable ways of denying the reality of Islam. Muslims are violent because they don’t have laptops! (Give that man a Pulitzer Prize.) Muslims are violent because they are sexually frustrated! (Give that man an op-ed.) Muslims are violent because they are alienated! (Give that man an endowed chair.) Muslims are violent because they have not been integrated into our consumerist society! (Give that woman a publishing contract.) Muslims are violent because we have not made sufficient efforts to find and encourage moderates! (Give that man a think tank.) Muslims are violent because they hate freedom! (Give that woman a Cabinet post.) But if someone said that Muslims are violent because they are followers of a religion that commands violence as a sacred obligation, he would be certified, not as an expert, but as an extremist.

Author's comment in "Converted to Islam at gun point, kidnapped reporter reveres Islam." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 8/27/06.