Can we have some critical thinking in discussing Islam?

There are many disheartening aspects to the war on cartoonists, one of which is the way that some people are so caught up in their own culture war that they can’t see the difference between their opponents and enemies. A small number of anti-racism activists still see the power + prejudice formula in a way that misses the woods for the trees, but I’m mainly thinking of Catholics like Bill Donahue who are so obsessed with atheism they’ve lost all sense of proportion.

More depressing, though, is the lack of critical thinking that greets discussion of Islam and violence. Take this article from the Daily Dot, for example:

‘Richard Dawkins took to social media to paraphrase Vladimir Lenin—tweeting that “some useful idiot will claim it [the Paris attacks] had nothing to do with religion”—before proclaiming, “No, all religions are not equally violent. Some have never been violent, some gave it up centuries ago.