Why do Atheists defend Islam?

[Ben Davis]

Muslims do respond when terror attacks shock the world, but on social horrors which you would probably not wish to see practiced in your own neighborhood, very little is said.

Once again, this is not so true in the UK. There are some very vocal and politically & socially active muslim intersectional support groups (e.g. Muslim Women's Network, Imaan, Safra). It may be that British muslims are more reformed/progressive than those in other countries or maybe they're following the lead of The Church of England, who focus more on how we can all get along rather than any separatist tub-thumping. I'm aware that there's still a good percentage (~25% I think I saw in a recent set of stats) who oppose progressive, liberal or secular values in favour of a more 'traditionalist', repressive society and that's a problem but happily, it's one that British muslims seem more than capable of dealing with of their own accord.

I fear that recent decisions by our political leadership (to bomb Syria) will taint that good progress.

These fundamental problems relate directly to the personality of Mohammad, whose tale was written not by people who were not the product of Greek culture, but of desert raiding, horse-stealing, woman-beating, and slave-marketing machismo. Reform of a religion is much easier when you have a compassionate hippie dude like Jesus as your central figure to look to for behavioral standards, while a dick like Mohammad, remembered as he is, is keeping Muslims forever in the 7th Century.

I don't know about that. There was a time when muslims were a progressive powerhouse; forward looking both socially and technologically. Repression is not automatically an Islamic attribute, it depends on the current 'archetypal' interpretations of the qur'an/hadith.

You cannot criticize what he did without denying him as your holy man, a serious threat to any faith in Islam, and this has the imams threatening with violence anyone who makes such criticism in defense of their job security.

The tales told by muslims/ex-muslims who have worked towards 'reformation' of Islam in recent years would agree with you. But once again, that's not an automatic attribute of Islam or else you would have no progressive muslims at all. Remember that Turkey became a secular nation under the direction of an entirely Islamic ruling council.