On September 11, 2001, Islamic extremists hijacked four American airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and rural Pennsylvania, killing more than three thousand people. Media coverage of the attacks emphasized that the hijackers were Muslim, a religion many Americans know little about. Indeed, after the attacks, many Americans wondered if Islam condones terrorism and violence. However, as stated by President George W. Bush in the wake of the attacks, “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.” The Muslims who perpetrated the attack on America belonged to a radical extremist sect of Islam—often called Islamism—that bears little resemblance to the faith practiced by nearly 2 billion people worldwide. Many people believe that Islamism poses a terrorist threat to the international community...