For all intents and purposes, Muslims can be identified as the primary facilitators of the acts of global terrorism that have become so prevalent in the past decade. Nearly all of the most recognizable acts of terror – the September 11^th acts, the Madrid train bombings, slaughters in Russia and bombings day in and day out throughout the Middle East – all come back to evil done in the name of Allah.

As true as this general assumption may be, it is unfair to cast ire at the entire religion. As much as all terrorists are Muslims, not all Muslims are terrorists. The terrorists tend to come from violent sects of the Islamic religion and do not necessarily represent all Muslims. As a matter of fact, a great majority of Muslims are good-natured, peace-loving people and possess moral values similar to those of "Westernized" religions. If this were not true – if instead Jihadists were in complete control of their religion – their acts of death and destruction would be promoted and cheered by the Islamic majority. They are not.

Case in point, over the past few years a handful of very significant terror plans have been squashed. The Lackawanna Six were stopped in 2002. The Toronto terror cell was broken last year. And, this past summer, a dazzling attack that would have occurred via air travel was averted in the United Kingdom. In all of those cases local Islamic communities were key in bringing to light the networks of terror and aiding the authorities in bringing about their downfall.

But, despite these grassroots efforts by average Muslims to win back their religion and give it an air of respectability, they seem to be fighting a losing war. They cannot win because they are not being provided support by the leaders of their religion. The upper echelon of Islam’s management play a strange game of fence-sitting, never admitting to a link between terrorism and Islamic fundamentalists and never denouncing the dark side of their religion. In complete disregard to the good majority they are empowering the bad minority.

This begs the question: are these religious leaders living in fear or are they promoting the old ways of Islam? The answers depend on optimism, pessimism, and reality.

The optimist will look at their inaction as an act of fear. Much like many light-treading Westerners they may not be keen on identifying the link for fear of retribution. Based upon past behavior and actions one can assume that the violent fundamentalists would treat vocal, nay saying religious leaders as being nothing more than Westerners in Islamic clothing and death would certainly befall them and their followers.

The pessimist will look at Islam’s inability to address inner strife as their means to allow the evil to grow because it is the "right thing to do". By today’s Christian/Judaic/Secular standards religious indoctrination through the sword seems archaic. But, in the case of those from the Middle East, enough people have maintained such a belief through the ages that it is almost deemed "normal" behavior. Quite frankly, the violent nature of this new fundamentalist movement is Islam done by the book. Islam’s leaders may be quietly accepting this traditional interpretation.

The realist, on the other hand, will identify the lack of identity amongst Islam’s leaders as yet another victory for Islamic fundamentalism. No matter what the Islamic leadership is trying to accomplish – political correctness for the purpose of self preservation or the quiet promotion of fundamentalism – the end result is that the fundamentalists are winning. They are allowed to proceed as they have, wreaking havoc throughout the world and killing men, women, and children as they believe Mohammed had intended. While they are doing this they are efficiently gaining support from disenchanted Islamic youth who will become the terrorists of tomorrow.

The world can only hope that someday soon the peace-loving masses of the Islamic religion will call upon their leaders to take a different path and save them and their religion from continued divisiveness. The path they are taking now does not bode well at all for the future safety of innocent people everywhere because this current mysteriousness of Islamic leadership condones the evil side of its people and – despite the will of the majority - sets the tone for where this globally popular religion is going.