President Obama has drawn considerable criticism because of his administration's purposeful attempt to draw a line between Islam and terrorism. He wants to separate the two, and many don't like that attempt.
But, we have done that for years with Christians involved in terrorist activities. Did we call David Koresh a "Christian Extremist?" Koresh was a "cult leader." Those who attacked and killed abortion providers were "abortion opponents" not "Christian Terrorists."
The terms "Christian extremists" or Christian terrorists" could easily have been thrown around many times in our history, but they weren't. Had they been, the dominant faith community in this country would have howled. Bill O'Reilly's head would have exploded. Franklin Graham would have had a seizure. More importantly, we would all have realized that these acts were such a perversion of Christian teaching that they didn't really deserve to be called anything other than terrorist acts.
Thomas Friedman in today's NYT said that we shouldn't deny that the current wave of violence comes out of the Muslim "faith community." No. It is violence done by people who call themselves Muslims and use their claims of religion to justify wanton cruelty and instrumental violence for political, economic, or social ends.
Also, we would do well to remember that the vast majority of victims of these terrorists have been Muslims--think here about Boko Haram, the Nairobi mall, The school in Pakistan, as well as ISIS. Paris, horrible as it was, is a small drop in much larger bucket of blood--most of which was shed by Muslims. What true "faith community" preaches the murder of its own children?
So, there is a very good reason that the current administration tries to separate Islam from terrorism. It is what other administrations and our entire society has correctly done for years when faced with acts of terror perpetrated by persons calling themselves Christians. Why shouldn't Islam get the same treatment (or respect) that we have given Christianity?