Islamophobia?

To the Editor: 
Our fears of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are certainly vastly overblown. Admittedly, anti-Muslim rhetoric by self-serving politicians is overheated. But are we, in the words of a Stockton professor quoted in the Press, asking a billion and a half Muslims “to speak on the actions of a small number of people?”  Not really.
Perhaps she is speaking only of the U.S., but as Art Hall pointed out last week, a Pew survey indicated that 50 million Muslims approve of ISIS. However, that undercounts all those who are in other terrorist groups, plus those Muslims who openly support other terrorists, plus those who approve, plus those who don’t disapprove – they number in the hundreds of millions. Actually, I was shocked that she would say “a small number” considering the roots of violence are in the Quran itself.
Although I don’t claim to be a scholar, no one could casually read the Quran even once without being struck by the amount spent warning/advising Muslims to avoid contact with “unbelievers” and shun their teachings. In fact, I would estimate that at least half of the Quran is devoted to that issue which  includes  outright hostility to “the people of the book;” Jews,  and indirectly, Christians.
Then there are specific admonishments to kill “unbelievers,” like the famous verses 191-192 from Surah  Al Baqarah, which say “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but do not commit aggression because Allah does not like aggression. Fight against them wherever they confront you in combat and drive them out from where they drove you out. Though killing is bad, persecution is worse.”
Since “the way of Allah”  means Islam, and since “combat” “you” and “they” are not specified, it can be meaningfully read as exhorting all true Muslims to fight against anyone who denigrates, criticizes, or opposes the teaching, spreading or practicing of Islam or associates with those who do.
Is preaching Christianity “confronting” Islam? Is posting of the 14-minute ‘Innocence of Muslims’ on YouTube “combating” Islam? Is the publishing of cartoons of Muhammad “persecution” of Islam? Hundreds of millions of rioting Muslims around the world thought so, including various Muslim assassins in Denmark and France. If polls are to be believed, hundreds of millions of Muslims believe that the U.S. is engaged in a war against Islam.
Fourteen people were just killed in California, not because they did anything to any Muslim but because they were Americans and the U.S. has bombed ISIS, which is trying to establish a Muslim state. Get the logic? Anyone who is associated in some way with anyone who has done anything against the “believers” is an enemy. 
ISIS recently vowed to kill all teachers in France because France is a secular state, and therefore an enemy of Islam. Boko Haram and Al Shabab routinely kill westerners.
Terrorist groups take their instructions straight from one meaningful interpretation of the Quran. Are they the only instructions? Nope. Plenty of Quranic verses and interpretations advocate peace.
Is it a valid interpretation of the Quran?  Well, obviously, that depends on whom you ask, and Muslims range from ultra-violent to extremely peaceful, most in the peaceful range of interpretations.
Is it Islamophobic to think that large numbers of Muslims support or are inclined to violence? Not at all. At this juncture in history, Islam is at the center of most conflicts around the world and there will always be a cloud of suspicion as long as Muslims, in the face of the obvious, keep repeating the mantra that Islam is the religion of peace.