Can Islam and the West Co-Exist

It is much easier to count the dead in Paris than in rural Nigeria. Islamist terrorists connected to al-Qaida or Islamic State (perhaps both) murdered 17 people in the modern, globally linked capital of France. Seventeen is an exact number. Last week, Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist terror movement, murdered several hundred people, though initial reports claimed 2,000. The confirmed massacre resulted the deaths of mostly women and children. All victims were of the Christian faith.

The Paris Islamic psychopaths claimed their slaughter of 12 in the office of the satirical journal was to redress the magazine's publication of cartoons, which according to the Islamic extremist’s religious dogma, blasphemed Muhammad. A fellow terrorist friend, however, also killed five people in a Jewish deli. Both acts of carnage had objectives. Editors and satirists were murdered in order to intimidate the press and silence free expression, and Jews were targeted for death because they were simply, Jewish. Let me conclude this commentary with a hint of hope that the future of Islamic and non-Islamic peoples can one day co-exist peacefully.

The hope lies in the words recently spoken by Egypt’s current president; “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people (Muslims) should want to kill the rest of the world's inhabitants ... so that they themselves may live? Impossible! You cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset you need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective." If only these words are noted and heeded by all Muslims, just maybe, there is some hope for positive change.