Islamorealism -- And No, That Isn't A Form Of Bigotry
This is one of the best, most realistic articles I've read on Islam (and I say that as somebody who's been reading in Islam since 9/11 and is more informed than most Americans).

Here are a few excerpts from philosophy doctoral candidate Spencer Case's article on Quillette:

Islam as Totalitarian
You might wonder why the Islamic calendar begins with the Hijrah, or migration of Muslims from Mecca to Medina rather than, say, Muhammad's birthday, or the "Night of Power" when revelation to Muhammad supposedly began. The answer is that the Hijrah brought into being the Islamic community, or "Umma" wherein spiritual and temporal authority were melded. An Al Jazeera column notes that "the Hadith about the death penalty is not about apostasy in the strict sense of no longer believing in Islam per se. Rather, it is about what can be considered in modern terms political treason." Apostasy is treason only if the church is the state.

...In a recent column, Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz admonishes us to distinguish between Islam and Islamism, which is "a political ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society." If Islam is a total system like Ansary, Nasr, and many others believe, however, then this is like distinguishing between fascism and "fascismism," the belief that fascism should be imposed on society. Both Islam and fascism contain within them the idea that they are to be imposed on society, so "Islamism," and "political Islam" are redundancies.

Nawaz will say that this view of Islam is wrong. But it's noteworthy that Nasr refers to himself as a traditionalist, while Nawaz refers to himself as a reformer. This suggests that, although Nawaz says that Islamists are perverting Islam, it is his tolerant version of Islam, not Nasr's totalitarian version, that is revisionist. Although I respect Nawaz for his opposition to totalitarianism, the fact that all four of the major schools of Sunni Islamic law concern themselves with matters of state - to say nothing of Muhammad's life - suggests that he is fighting an uphill interpretive battle.

It's probably best to interpret Nawaz's Islam-Islamism distinction as being aspirational. Islam as Nawaz would like it to be is not a total system. But Islam as it is now is not as he would like it to be, hence the need for reform. I do not deny that Islam can be reformed, but I insist upon not speaking as if the reform has already taken place. The fact that Islam has the potential to become tolerant and non-violent doesn't entail that it is actually tolerant and non-violent any more than the fact that a guilty man could repent entails that he has repented.

...What needs to be explained is why such large minorities of Muslims do support terrorism. One hypothesis is that Islam makes terrorism easier to justify. I have argued that Islam is a total system. Total systems lack ethical constraints on how power is to be achieved. If that is right, then Islam plausibly justifies terrorism that will make Islam feared and dominant.

Many versus of the Qur'an seem to corroborate this. For example, 9:5 begins: "And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush." Defenders of the faith complain that critics usually only cite the first half of the verse. The rest is: "But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah [religious alms], let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." How reassuring is this, though? It declares that peace is contingent upon the polytheists changing their religious practices.

The hypothesis that Islam provides an ideological justification for terrorism fares better than the favored alternative, the so-called "blowback" theory, according to which jihadism is a reaction against Western meddling. The blowback theory doesn't explain why so much jihadi terrorism is directed at subordinated minorities like the Coptic and Pakistani Christians, and against countries like the Philippines, Nigeria, and Belgium, which have never been imperial powers in the Middle East. It also can't explain why other groups who are under foreign occupation, such as the Okinawan Japanese, do not engage in terrorism.

...According to Obama, identifying Islam as problematic "alienates Muslims." Fareed Zakaria said something similar during his recent appearance on Sam Harris's podcast. That may be true, but denying that there is any problem alienates reformers and apostates.

The problem, in the West, is that any sort of realistic presentation of Islam -- and this above is a terrific example of it -- is typically deemed bigotry.

Islam may be practiced as a religion, but as I have pointed out over the years and as Case notes, it is a totalitarian system that commands its followers to convert or kill non-Muslims and establish The New Caliphate around the globe.

This means the erasure of individual rights, women's rights, gay rights, and the right to leave Islam -- which is, cleverly, punishable by death.

Sure, there's crazy stuff in the Bible -- but nobody Christian is slaughtering the neighbors for adultery or for the apparent sin of wearing two different fabrics at once.

Contrast that with, for example, an ISIS militant who said his mother should be killed for being "an infidel."

I don't think Islam can be reformed due to failsafes in the Quran (how it is said to be the word of Allah, handed down through the angel Gabriel -- and is thus said to be perfect and unquestionable).

I don't have answers (vis a vis Islam's unreformability), but I sure don't think pretending it's just a different flavor of religious ice cream, right there in the freezer next to Judaism and Christianity, is the answer.