Islam, a growing threat to the free world?

[Existentialist]

There is no such thing as islamic terrorism - those are just unconnected words thrown together to reinforce a construct. You could do the same with atheist terrorism if you wanted, the Red Army Faction come to mind. The big religions and the big ideologies don't terrorise, people do, usually in small, alienated groups. To defend itself a society must either tackle the alienation politically (the Northern Ireland approach - eventually) or determine to defend itself directly against individual terrorists and put society beyond harm when they are caught. Extending the blame for the actions of 20-30 people to another 1.6 billion stretches credibility, to say the least. We also have to ask what is terrorism? Does the bombing and killing of civilians in Afghanistan count? If you were on the receiving end of that, you would say yes. The niceties of claimed legal legitimacy would be somewhat lost on you if you witnessed your family and neighbours being killed by a NATO aircraft. The best thing I would have said would be to put an end to all militaristic and terrorist killing. The west has a long history of sending its "legitimate" armies to suppress peoples. These conflicts did not suddenly start in September 2001. The west was hardly a peaceful and honourable force for peace before then.