When trying to explain the Islamists' global campaign of mass murder, both liberals and conservatives, despite their fierce mutual disagreements, make the same underlying mistake.

Religion has many dimensions. For most people it is simply a matter of fact. They were born in a particular faith and see no reason to step outside their ancestral code of belief.

Isolationists, Islamist extremists, and "intellectuals" -- and other types beginning with the letter "i," who will be left unnamed in the interest of civility -- have sneered at the awkward eloquence of President George W. Bush, embodied in his press conference on the evening of April 13.

This may sound like a naive, even defeatist statement in the context of the 9-11 Commission Report's reminder that the United States remains very much at war with "Islamist terrorism" and the ideas behind it. Yet a truce (Arabic hudna) rather than an increasingly dangerous "clash of civilizations"...

In countries where Islam reigns, Christians struggle just to stay alive. But Muslims in the United States and other western countries are protected and free to proselytize. And Islam is thriving here in America, aggressively taking advantage of western religious tolerance.

This is a topic that doesn't relate directly to Israel, although it does affects people's attitudes about the morality of Israel's (as well as the United States') defense of its citizens against Islamic terror.

The Constitution of the Muslim Student's Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA) states that the organization’s major purpose is "to serve the best interest of Islam and Muslims in the United States and Canada so as to enable them to practice Islam as a complete way of life." The truth, however, is something far less benign.

If Islamic society is to become prosperous, free and democratic, a true reformation must take place within the Arab nations. The Arab governments of the Middle East must remove theocratic Islam as the most dynamic, element within their borders. Gradually secular education,

I had intended to follow my last TCS column, on the growing crisis of American Islam -- i.e. on the problem of extremist domination of the American Muslim community -- with some long-developed reflections on the silence of the American Muslim community about the extremist threat to America's security, and to the situation of American Muslims.

Many believe that religious revival and political radicalism among Muslims in the West reflects the conflicts of the Middle East or the wider Muslim world. But Islamic Salafism (fundamentalist religious radicalism) is above all a consequence of the globalization and Westernization of Islam, and of the decoupling of culture and religion more generally.

Jama is heading a voter-registration drive on behalf of Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, a civil-rights advocacy group, and the Seattle branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Seattle).

“Some people are giving Islam a very bad name out there, and people are failing to realize that it’s not all of Islam,” said Abdul Quayyum, chairman of the newly founded Kentucky chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relationships, or CAIR. “It’s not Islam. This is just a bunch of bad apples.”

Islam, however, leaves no room for real change. A modern Muslim must either cast a blind eye to its many strictures or yield, willingly or not, to laws that are applicable to the seventh century, but which conflict with life in the twenty-first.

"But the enemy is not just 'terrorism,' some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism -- especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology."

We are facing, the report notes, a loose confederation of people who believe in a perverted stream of Islam that stretches from Ibn Taimaya to Sayyid Qutb. Terrorism is just the means they use to win converts to their cause.

The report of the US commission investigating the 11 September 2001 attacks calls for a new global strategy to defeat the extremist ideology of al-Qaeda and promote a culture of openness and opportunity in the Muslim world.

9-11: Whatever else you might think of the 9-11 Commission's exhaustive study of the terrorist attacks on America, it does something few people in politics these days dare to do: It identifies the enemy. How refreshing.

Mr Khairy's view of Islam is both moderate and modern. Perhaps echoing the moderate Islam promoted by Datuk Seri Abdullah, he can understand that Malaysia is a multicultural country whose standing in the international system is dependent on preserving a progressive and liberal form of Islam.

"It is time ... that the silent majority should speak up. We should decide, stand up and be counted and say, `What kind of Muslim am I? Am I the Muslim who believes in Islam and what the Qur'an teaches me, or am I the Muslim who will be led by the Taliban and its distorted Islam and the bad name it gives Islam?'

Some energetic hack should find out if that opinion also applies to coalition invaders like the British forces stationed in those two countries. Should they also be resisted and killed? If so, it's not clear why the British government would want to welcome someone who believes that its troops should be targeted for death.

TWIN FALLS -- Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the words Muslim and Arab have become increasingly common in American vernacular. However, common does not necessarily mean well understood.

It is easy to blame Islam and Muslims for all the ills in the world because injured people need quick answers on the causes of their injury. But Islam is not the reason for terrorism, even though those who committed that awful act declared themselves to be Muslims.

I could reasonably foresee that I may not be the only person agitated by Zahid Abbas' letter on quitting Islam with conditions since its content conspicuously draws an inference of despotism by anyone who reads it.

In recent weeks there has been much soul-searching, in the Islamic world and among the wider Muslim diaspora about whether Islam is compatible with democracy.

Mahmood Mamdani, Professor of Government and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University, is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost analysts of the history and politics of the nation state in the developing world. Mamdani’s area of expertise is the constraints imposed by Western colonial and post-colonial powers...

The United States has a vital supporting role to play in the drama of Middle Eastern democratization through its views and initiatives for reform in the Greater Middle East.

A Cape Town radio listener has taken on city radio station 567 Cape Talk, accusing it of biased and discriminatory reporting on Islam.

The Studies mentioned above point to Islamic banks' strong powerbase among religiously motivated customers. However, these customers are also concerned about other factors reported in the same studies.