The solution to ISIS is not to pretend they have NOTHING to with Islam, but to recognise there are things in Islam we need to confront. Until we do that we will get nowhere!!
I agree.
I argued the same thing on the independent newspaper, on an article by a Muslim that was basically stating this had nothing to do with the real islam.
I said the author had missed a perfect chance to talk about the differences in interpretations and beliefs in Islam.
Then an Ahmadi Muslim started to argue I was wrong, because you know, his was the real Islam.
I kept trying to make him understand that as long as he kept stating that his version was the real version, and people could google and find that the bad stuff does exist in literal readings, then everytime a Muslim spoke, they would be seen as liar.
The problem that I see is that Muslims are seen as one homogeneous Islamic group, and this means that any Muslim arguing from a position of 'No, this is what it actually says, the other stuff is a lie', simply comes across as a liar.
What I wish is that Muslims would start talking about the differences in the sects/traditions, that they would admit on TV that the horrible passages did exist, but that they were of a sect/group that had reformed to remove/reinterpret those things.
Christians have nut case psychos, as do Jews, but no one sees those groups as mainstream, as the religion isn't seen homogeneously.
Westboro Baptist church for example are seen as a lunatic fringe group. That's how ISIS must come to be seen, and that can't happen as long as Muslims refuse to admit that these bad things are written, and that there is no such thing as a monolithic version of Islam.
But they don't, they just keep saying 'This is the real islam, look at these nice passages', which does nothing to stop people finding the bad passages, and calling them liars.