A bomb goes off in a marketplace in Jerusalem. A suicide bomber
launches himself into a bus full of women and children in Tel Aviv.
Foreign tourists get massacred at a holiday resort in Luxor, Egypt.
Villages upon villages get annihilated in Algeria. The list of events
worldwide which have come to symbolise the 'Islamic terror' are
endless. From the times in the 70's and 80's when Pan Am and TWA
aeroplanes would be highjacked, to the mid 80's in war torn Lebanon
where Americans and Europeans would be held as hostages for years; all
such incidents have come to be identified with the religion of Islam.
Such incidents from past and present have undoubtedly affected Muslims
worldwide and more so in the West. Any Muslim, who wants to practice
his/her religion and expresses the pious desire to live under the
banner of Islam, is labelled a fundamentalist or extremist. Any Muslim
man who walks down a busy street in London or Paris (and Paris moreso)
with a beard and a scarf on his head, is looked upon as being a
terrorist who's probably got an AK47 stashed somewhere on his person.
Muslim women who are veiled can't go anywhere in the Western world
without being taunted as being oppressed or being mad (for covering
up). However, are such beliefs and opinions about Islam really
justified? ...

Most level headed people know that Muslims are not generally intent on
blowing up non-Muslims. However when church leaders incite their
congregation to violence against whatever non-Muslim group happens to
be out of favour at the time, then is it any wonder that Islam is seen
as a hateful religion? I haven't heard the Pope, Archbishop or Dalai
Lama tell their congregations to kill Muslims.