The Catholic Church is not a religion of contraception, but, sadly, many Catholics contracept.  Islam is not a religion of peace, but, joyfully, many Muslims are peaceful.

Essentially, Islam is a mirror-image of Christianity.  The more closely a Christian follows Christ, the better a person he becomes.  The less closely a Muslim follows large pieces of the Koran, the better a person he becomes.

That Islam is not a religion of peace is not surprising, since it was invented by Mohammad to justify his aggregation of worldly power and wealth, not to mention a 6-year-old bride, through the use of violence and deceit.

However, when we buy into the lie of radical Muslims that there is but one Islam, we strengthen the extremists.  That only a tiny percentage of Muslims in civilized countries support jihad tells us that there are at least two Islams, if not more, and that one of them is not a supporter of beheading journalists.

If we act as though all Muslims are evil, we run the risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Most Muslims, especially educated ones, are very decent people who deserve our respect and friendship.

Even in Egypt – hardly a First-World country in terms of education or economic prosperity – most Muslims are not fans of sharia or of killing Christians.  They’ve seen the Muslim Brotherhood’s future, and unlike Obama, the average Egyptian Muslim rejects it.  That’s why the Egyptian generals have been able to crush the 7^th-century Muslims with the support of the Muslim majority.

If we hope to win the war with the Muslims, usually uneducated, who cling to Mohammad’s original intent, with the minimum amount of bloodshed, we need to not alienate civilized Muslims.  We need to get those moderate Muslims on our side, or at least get them to sit peacefully on the sidelines.

A good general always works to separate his enemy from any hope of support from others.  We need to think that way to shove the scourge of 7^th-century Islam back into the hell it sprang from.

Telling peaceful anti-Sharia Muslims that their faith is evil will only create in their minds the idea that they are hated.  And how do people who think they’re hated behave?  They riot, they support violence, they lash out, they become our enemies.

On the other hand, we’ve seen from Iraq, Egypt, and Afghanistan that sooner or later, most Muslims will say no to the hell the 7^th-century Muslims want to create, if for no other reason than that most of those killed by the Mohammad wannabes are Muslims.

While Christianity and civilization would probably prevail even if all Muslims united, the cost in blood and treasure would be much higher than if we join together with civilized Muslims to crush the Muslims who cling to Mohammad’s dream of better living through torture and conquest.

If we follow these simple rules we stand a fighting chance of excising the cancer of 7^th-century Islam without having to wage war against all Muslims:

1) Condemn Islamic terrorism, religious intolerance, and triumphalism all the time.
2) Condemn Islam only when necessary.
3) Condemn all Muslims never.

If we condemn the excesses of the 7^th-century Muslims, most civilized Muslims will stand shoulder to shoulder with us, or at least shut up and not support jihad.  By making the enemy the parts of Islam civilized Muslims want to forget or ignore, we make it easier for Muslims to openly stand against the problems in Islam.

On the other hand, if we say that Islam is intrinsically bad, then we’re telling those civilized Muslims that the core of their life is bad and that they are bad.  That will tend to turn them against us; people don’t generally make friends with those who condemn them.

Even though condemning Islam shouldn’t be our go-to first comment, sometimes it will be necessary to point out the error in some aspect of Islam – say, sharia.  And yes, we risk alienating some Muslims by speaking the truth.  But if we chose our words wisely and remember that Muslims, and everyone else, are our brothers, whom Christ commanded us to love, we can avoid alienating most civilized Muslims.

Most importantly, always distinguish between Muslims and Islam.  Similarly to how the fact that some Christians have done horrible things in contradiction to what Christ taught does not say that Christianity is bad, the fact that Islam is full of the potential for evil does not mean that all Muslims are evil.

Many have been inundated by members of the ruling class constantly telling them that Islam is great and that Islam has nothing to do with the terrors we face.

To say that Islamists are not of Islam is a lie.  The Koran may contain evil, but Mohammad did have to get along with people when his forces were too weak to conquer.  This means that the Koran also contains good.  The modern reality is that many Muslims live their lives based on the “good” Koran and ignore the calls for oppression and conquest.

But when we hear Obama shout out, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” and then turn around and say, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation,” it offends us.  Christianity is bad because Christians don’t live up to it; Islam is good because Muslims don’t live up to it.  Yet we hear constant excuses for Islam and constant condemnation of Christianity.

The natural reaction of people to this forced top-down indoctrination is to want to shout from the rooftops that Islam is evil.  That’s not what’s best for us from either a spiritual or worldly perspective.

Note that there is no rule that says, “Say nice things about Islam.”  There are enough liberals who do that.  Instead, what the rules above recommend is to restrict discussion to condemning the parts of Islam that the 7^th-century types use to justify their evil.  Because civilized Muslims act as though they reject those beliefs – even when they won’t publically denounce them – we can build common ground.

We need to be wise and not react to the inanity coming from Obama and the liberals about Islam.  Instead, by denying the 7^th-century types the support of many Muslims by winning those Muslims over to our side, we will reduce the frequency of domestic jihadists and make crushing the Mohammad wannabes easier.

If we must fight, we must, but we must also work hard to make friends out of potential enemies.

You can read more of Tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious.  Feel free to follow him on Twitter.