Will Islam become a peaceful, tolerant religion?

The video embedded below presents the views of a Muslim who regrets that the Islamic State, its predecessors and progeny, are Islamic and driven by Islam as it now exists.

Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim, supports the efforts of Hirsi Ali and others who call attention to the horrific actions taken by Islamists (also referred to as “Muslim extremists”) in the name of and because of Islam. He rejects efforts by Obama and others to excommunicate the Islamic State, et al, from Islam which — like the IS, et al, — is neither peaceful nor tolerant. He hopes that Islam will eventually become peaceful and tolerant.

Obama, far from being the constitutional and religious scholar He would have us believe Him to be is, at best, woefully ignorant about both the Constitution and Islam. Perhaps more likely and more harmful, He has sufficient understandings of both — and of His power — to undermine the Constitution while empowering Islamists. His “foreign policy” appears to be directed toward Islamist empowerment and His domestic policy appears to be directed toward diminishing our freedoms. Both are fed by and thrive upon politically correct multicultural notions. Is it all about the (unquenchable) thirst for power over others achieved, and to be achieved, through their submission, or are there other powerful ideological motivators?

If Dr. Jasser’s views were to be accepted by a very substantial majority of Muslims worldwide, they might provide hope for positive change. However, Islamists are powerful. Dr. Jasser is not. He does not have millions of devout followers, nor does he have the financial and other resources of Islamists; the Islamic State is considered to be the most wealthy terrorist organization the world has seen. No matter what Dr. Jasser may say, and no matter how right he may be, his words will not change the contentions of the Excommunicator in Chief. Nor will they change the views of those who agree with Him.

Will Dr. Jasser change the views of reasonable, peaceful Muslims who already live, and want to continue to live, in harmony with others, including “non-believers” and apostates? Probably not; at best he may not alienate too many of those who consider Islam already to be peaceful.

Will he change the views of “extremist Muslims” (Islamists)? Almost certainly not, at least in the reasonably foreseeable future. Islamism has become too powerful to expect that the words of Dr. Jasser and other like-minded Muslims will cause significant numbers of Islamists to have epiphanies.

Neither will the transparently disingenuous words of such luminaries as Obama and Kerry.

Muslims need to persuade other Muslims that Islam, as it now exists, is evil. Those who are thus persuaded need to persuade others to join with them in changing Islam from evil to good. They need to succeed. Unfortunately, success seems unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Until efforts to change Islam into a peaceful and tolerant religion succeed, civilized nations need stop pretending that Islam is something it is not and to do everything within their power to defeat Islam as it exists. They have not yet begun. They have not even acknowledged the name of the problem. Will they do so in time?