Religions are not equals

[Crunchy]

How can there be a new enlightenment directed at Islam when the 'enlightened critics' treat it as a monolithic edifice and regard corrections on matters of fact or nuance 'attacks'?

That's a strawman and a misrepresentation of their criticisms. They don't treat Islam as a monolithic edifice. It just makes it easier for you if the accuse them of this.

And Voltaire and Jefferson were 'punching up' while we are in a situation in the West where our Muslim citizens are a vulnerable minority. 'Punching down' calls for more care and 'lifting up' is usually more classy.

This once again attempts to protect Islam from criticism by tying such criticism to racism towards a minority. It's a dangerous mistake to conflate people and religion.
If we followed your line of reasoning, no one should criticize Christianity/Hinduism/Buddhism because there are vulnerable minorities of each in Islamic nations. You really need to stop conflating people and religion and trying to grant religion the same protections we afford to people.
Sorry, but no matter how well intentioned this is flawed reasoning.


I get that you want to protect people, but what you are inadvertently doing is protecting the horrible ideas of religious belief systems from criticism if it's minorities who believe them.  
 Of course we should do all we can to protect minorities from violence or even just unfair treatment... But what you must understand is that this does not extend to giving their beliefs any special exemption from criticism just because they are minorities.