Why do Atheists defend Islam?

[Mister Agenda]

Let me make something perfectly clear, because I think my actual stance on this is getting lost in the debate. 

I don't have anything against Muslim people. I don't think good, peaceful Muslims should stop being Muslim. I do think the Islam ideology, as it stands right now, has one major issue - and that is that it can be easily taken in a way that gets many people do many heinous things. It needs some sort of reform. And for those of you who immediately say "well Christianity blah blah blah," yes, I get it. Christians have killed many people too, in the past. Trust me, if Christians were running around right now killing thousands of people in the name of Jesus like the Islamic Jihadists are doing in the name of their god, I would be condemning the hell out of their behavior and saying the same thing I'm saying about Islam - that we need a reform and that this needs to stop. Like I said, I have nothing against good Muslim people practicing their faith peacefully. But I hold them to the same standard that I would hold my own Christian faith to and that I hold myself to: condemn every attack in the name of your faith.             

Seriously, I have no idea why the stance that...

1. islam needs a reform so that we don't have millions of its followers believing they need to commit heinous acts, and 

2. people should openly condemn/denounce horrible things being done in the name of their ideology (Christians and Muslims alike),   

...Is being met with so much hostility. Heaven forbid I think an ideology that is killing so many needs a reform. Heaven forbid I think we need to openly denounce murder being done in our name.

Here's the sad truth. This is what a Reformation looks like. People often overlook the violence involved in the Christian Reformation. It was bloody. It was people with this interpretation fighting that interpretation. It was the gradual elimination of factions too violent to be allowed to continue to exist.