Response to Nolan Finley's editorial - "Ex-jihadist seeks Islam's Martin Luther"

In response to the editorial “Ex-jihadist seeks Islam’s Martin Luther” printed on October 22 in the Detroit News, the solutions of more baseball and sex to reform a minority of Muslims away from extremism are preposterous.

It is absurd to think that people commit acts of extremism based exclusively on religious texts, as if to say that people live in an utter vacuum disconnected from socio-political circumstances. Thus, terrorists such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, who pioneered suicide bombings, are secularists, yet countries such as Gambia that are almost 100% Muslims do not suffer from terrorism.

Also, the claim that no Muslim leaders or groups have denounced extremism, the killing of apostates and subjugation of women is utterly baseless. Muslim organizations such as the Council of American-Islamic Relations have consistently spoken out against extremism, the right for people to be not forced to accept Islam to the rights of Muslim women.