"But what about the moderates?"

[xpastor]

There were certainly some Muslims who denounced the recent attacks on Canadian soldiers. I heard them on the news. Of course, I have no idea what percentage they form of the Canadian Muslim community.

I'm certainly willing to believe there are moderate Muslims in existence who condemn the extremists. It just doesn't mean anything to me. It doesn't mean anything to the extremists either.

This is the analogy that leaps to mind to convey why. Imagine extremist Islam is a pit bull. When the pit bull has once again attacked an innocent person on the street and the owner says "bad dog", it doesn't mean very much. The dog is still just as much of a problem.

You are right that these condemnations mean nothing to the extremists, but it does mean that secularists and Christians should not launch their own jihad against Muslims in general.

I don't think your canine analogy is very precise. Moderate Muslims are not like the dog-owner: they have no control over the extremists or immediate responsibility for their actions. They're more in the position of a dog lover who sees a pit bull attack and says, "That's a bad dog; it should be put down" but he has no power to do so himself.

Actually it is even more complicated than that. As I said before, liberal believers do have some responsibility because they keep insisting their holy books are divinely-inspired even though they have never really come to grips with the sometimes murderous content of those books.

Maybe the liberals are a bit like sentimental dog lovers who will accept that a particular pit bull has to be put down after a vicious attack but will fight against any attempt to ban the pit bull breed. In Ontario where I live pit bulls were banned about ten years ago after a series of high profile attacks on humans and other dogs—existing animals had to be neutered and kept on a leash in public. We still get soppy sentimental complaints about "breed profiling" but the number of serious dog bites has declined drastically. Disclosure: I am a big-time dog lover. I have a black Labrador and a Cockapoo.