I would argue that in the immediate aftermath of the Crusades, Inquisition, Salem, etc., public opinion would have been highly in favor of it. It was only after a few centuries, and a move towards an equilibrium, that people can look back at those attrocities and call them such. Likewise, I'm sure in a few centuries Muslims will look back at 9/11 and the other violent acts that have defined this century so far with regret (hopefully).
As for the majority of this thread, so far, I think it is a perfect snap shot of why this conflict is happening. Despite the ridicule received, I think Gman represented well the Koran and the Suri (multiple of Sura?) that justified violence. In this situation, it's just some shmuck named Gman who's taking quotes; however, if it were the Grand Ayatolla Gman reading from the Koran to a group of impressionable listeners, well then...
The fact that this thread has lasted for five pages already also shows how complex the issue is, and how "easy" it'll be to solve. I would argue that a cold-war strategy would work against us because it would only "prove" to the fundamentalist that this is an all out war against their religion and the begining of the 11th crusade (or what ever number we'd be up to). We definitely have to battle the fundamentalists, militarily, but we also have to simultaniously ally with the other 2 million moderates. Easier said than done. We'd have to ensure that we do not justify the arguments of the radical leaders, and somehow have the moderates embrace us (I have no idea how to do that). A major step that must happen is for the moderates to finally speak out against the radicals and find a way to battle the extreamists from within their own religion and society. Lastly, we need to better educate ourselves (the western infadels) so that there is better understanding.
So that's my solution...just these four easy steps towards world peace and harmony. Once again, you can see from this thread that there is no easy solution, no one size fits all strategy, and certainly many obsticles in the way. If you just read through this entire thread, you'll see represented all the complexities of the issue. Can anyone else come up with a solution? other than finger pointing?