A return to the 'religion of peace'?

Our Islamic neighbors have taken an important step toward rebuilding relations between their community and the rest of the world. The Free Muslim Coalition against Terrorism has admitted that Islam has a problem.

After September 11, many in the Muslim world chose denial and hallucination rather than face up to the sad fact that Muslims perpetrated the 9-11 terrorist acts and that we have an enormous problem with extremism and support for terrorism.

The people who launched this initiative weren't involved in 9/11, but they have the courage to say that many of their leaders "belong behind bars and not behind a pulpit." They add, "Simply put, not only do Muslims need to join the war against terror, we need to take the lead in this war."

This needed to be said, although Robert Spencer asks the pertinent question, "Why hasn't CAIR been saying this sort of thing for three years now?"

If these people are in the ascendent--and nothing is for certain--then we can work on a civil society of religious freedom.