Islam: A middle age religion in the age of technology

Today I hiked through a foot of snow to about 6000 ft above Marias Pass (Also known as Theodore Roosevelt Pass) between West Glacier and East Glacier on beautiful route two in northwest Montana. They extended elk season and that was my excuse for braving 20 below zero wind chill. Many people think I'm crazy but you'd have to be there to really know how wonderful it is. Just dress warmly and get in shape. The main sensation was not cold; it was peace. I began to wonder about peace. I'm sad to say that I'm not optimistic that we'll find it other than in isolated seclusion. Anywhere there are fundamentalist Muslims there is turmoil and it's not going to go away. Remember I'm viewing this through my western Christian cultural prism. That does not change the fact that many thousands if not millions of lunatic fanatics are living among us in Europe and the US and they are harnessing the power of the internet to achieve their cancerous growth. Soon they will be using WMD's against us. What's a culture to do? From the looks of it Europe may have already thrown in the towel. France of all unlikely places may just have a chance to reverse the trend under the leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy. I've heard the argument that Islam is a peaceful religion, but if that is so where is the outrage from the broad Muslim community when these crazed zealots cry for the execution of a British school teacher in Sudan? Folks I've read "The Life of Muhammad" and most of the Qur'an and please believe me when I tell you peace and love are not the underpinning principles of that "religion". Intolerance, punishment and conquest are the dominant themes I found. Now as a Christian I need to love my neighbor, but martyrdom went out of style in our culture half a millennium ago and I'm hesitant to love a guy who is trying to blow up my airplane. Can a strong leader help us rally to victory in this cultural war? I hope so, but I don't see any Sarkozys on our Presidential horizon. I hope I'm wrong. Rick