Welcome To Reality. Leave Your Head At The Door
Phyllis Chesler tells the truth Westerners don't want to believe about Islam. Unpleasant, yes, but true, too. Chesler writes at PJM:

Many battered women stay with their batterers because they have been warned that if they ever leave, turn to the police, or "tell" anyone what is really going on, their batterer will then be justified in killing them.

Cult members are routinely warned that if they break free and "tell" anyone about abusive cult practices, not only will they be shunned, stalked, and punished, but their relatives, including children, who are still prisoners of the cult, or true believers, will be punished too.

By now, many Westerners may believe this is true about batterers and about cults; but they will not believe that it is also true about fundamentalist Islam. Trained in favor of religious tolerance, concerned that if one religion is restricted that all religions might be; genuinely uninformed about non-western religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, etc., they assume that all religions are alike in terms of their virtues and that sinners of every religious persuasion exist despite--not because of-their religion.

When it comes to Islam such views may be wrong.

Many Muslims are not religious. Many Muslims who are religious are not fanatic fundamentalists or radicals and tend to lead (or would like to lead) quiet, peaceful lives. But an increasing number of Muslim religious and political leaders are quite hostile to human rights and freedom of religion as universal values. These leaders point to passages in the Qur'an or Hadith that justify cross-amputation, stoning to death, arranged child marriage, polygamy, and wife-beating as religious rights. They believe that infidels should either convert, be killed, or are to be held hostage and subordinated economically, physically, and psychologically--or are to be exiled, jailed, tortured or murdered.

Fundamentalist/political/radical Muslims are very clear that any Muslim who criticizes or exposes the truth about Islam must be intimidated, harassed, and attacked--and that any Muslim who actually converts to another religion must be killed, on sight, by any Muslim, or preferably by a member their own family, who is expected to cleanse their shame and restore their honor and the honor of Islam by murdering such an apostate.

As my studies in Middle East Quarterly have shown, Muslim girls are honor-murdered in the West (North America, Canada, Europe) for refusing to wear hijab, having non-Muslim friends, including friends who are boys, refusing to marry a first cousin, wanting to marry a non-Muslim. Imagine how much more grievous a sin it is for a Muslim to choose a Christian God.

Is this stuff we should be "tolerant" of? I sure don't think so, but I don't know what the solution is. As much as I despise burkas, for example, I don't think we win or preserve Western values and democracy by selectively pretending the Constitution went out for a smoke.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks there's hope in sending in moderate Christians to persuade Muslims to trade in the god of stoning and beheading for the the god of "turn the other cheek." (Obviously -- see above -- this could have some drawbacks for the safety of those Christians.) As for other measures, I think spreading the word about what Islam's really about is a really good place to start.

For those who are interested in learning more, see Jihadwatch.org and thereligionofpeace.com. I also highly recommend Hirsi Ali's book, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations.