Perhaps the most articulate response to that question, however, came from British political journalist Mehdi Hasan, during a fiery debate on the subject of Islamist terrorism at Oxford University in December 2013. In a crisp, fervent and well-researched speech, Hasan demolishes his opponents' arguments that Islam is backward and preaches war and violence.
In this video, watch Hasan belt out his argument and as another pertinent question: "If Islam is responsible for extremists, then ask yourself this – why aren't the rest of us doing it? Why don't the vast majority of Muslims around the world behave as violently and aggressively as a tiny minority of politically motivated extremists?"