The "not all Muslims are terrorists" fallacy

[TheRocketSurgeon]

I can respect your empathy towards Muslims people for not standing up more, and I wish I had more of it in this case. But I think everything you're saying is just making Islam look worse, not better. 

I try to show empathy for all people, to really understand where they're coming from, not just from my own perspective. I find the "trick" of reversing roles in my mind to be most useful in doing this.

On the other hand, I don't think it's possible to make Islam look much worse than it already does for itself. Of all the faith-practices on this planet which I abhor, theirs is the one most fraught with intellectual (as well as physical, of course) terrorism. That said, I also know several Muslims, both from my prison experience and before, who are wonderful people, and I try to caution my fellow infidels against attacking all Muslims simply because their religion overall has taken on a social philosophy that is, simply, insane.

I can empathize with the individual adherent without justifying the trends and practices of the religion as a whole. I often do the same with Christianity, of course, the faith which I am forced (as both a Southerner and former scientist) by aggressive members to stand up and combat most often. And yet, I am engaged to be married to a Christian, whom I love more than anything else on this earth, and whom I respect completely -- in part because she is a scientist, does not reject anything that science has discovered out of an intellectually-dishonest desire to cling to dogma, and fully admits which parts of her belief are entirely based on faith rather than knowledge. She doesn't think less of me because I am not a Christian, and has vehemently defended me against members of her church and family who have criticized her for being with me. (Her family now adores me, though, now that they know the difference between what they used to think about atheists, via propaganda, and the reality.) Respect for individuals and the right to believe is a core tenet of Secular Humanism, but likewise so is the commitment to combat any form of belief which seeks to squash dissent and/or intimidate others into believing, especially in realms where the beliefs being pushed so aggressively are counter to human rights or are demonstrably false.