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As another American Muslim, I love to hear these calls for liberalization, modernization, and secularization within our faith; however, I have to agree that these intellectuals have a minimal impact on the process of enlightening Islam.
I've read countless books, articles, and speeches by these liberalizing Muslims. There are even groups that are dedicated to a more rational Islam - see www.muslimwakeup.com for some good reading. We can be as modern and as liberal as we like a Muslims, but fundamentalists/terrorists aren't really found among our ranks to begin with.
The problem as I see it is that even if we do manage to create a secularized Islam, one that is peaceful, thoughful, rational, feminist-loving, and so forth, we're still outnumbered by the ignorant and the fearful - two characteristics that almost guarantee a fundmentalist outlook. There a few hundred thousands of us - there are a billion of them.
