Well, let me share about Islam/Moslem and their beliefs...
First, please be advised that, I do NOT have any interest, or such thing to "defend" or so the Islam/moslems, IN ANY WAY.
As you knew, I live in a nation where Islam/moslem is a majority religion over here. (Indonesia even has the biggest numbers of moslem in the world). My neighbourhoods are majority moslems, and i've been getting lots of interaction with them (directly) for about 40 years now.....so i guess that i know a bit about Islam/moslems, and their beliefs...At least from what I can see & direct experience from here.
I'm a Christian (Roman Catholic, to be specific) by my own choice, my Mother is Budhist, my two older sisters are Christian/Protestant, and don't surprise that my older brother is a Moslem. (go figure...by this you would probably know that we've been teached to have our own religion/belief with freely, no such compultion or so, here.
I just see one important thing that, the way you/we think is not (exactly) same with the way they think. Vice versa, your/our ways of thinking is not (exactly) same with their ways of thinking. This is a pluralism world....SO many reasons, So many circumtances, So many differences, etc between Christian and Moslem, or amongs Christian - Moslem - Budhism - Hindhu - Shinto, etc etc.
Justice/civilization/truth/ETC in a given place is different with justice/civilizations/truth/etc in other places. You may consider civilization in the US is the best, but you cannot ask other countries to have the same civilization, just for instance. (how could we?)
The same things JUST that (to my belief), all religions/races/cultures/histories/and so on, are destiny from God. And God has (always) "PLAN", that we do not know/understand. We cannot deny, or refuse "pluralism" in this world, of course.
In many cases, especially to religion/culture/beliefs/civilizations, I personally think that we cannot "judge" other peoples, or if their belief is RIGHT or WRONG. Even "general concencus" is not always right (IMO) because the basic question is, Whose's general concensus? We? They? (Or even Which Christians? Which Moslems?...In fact, we have so many "branches?" of Christian. The same thing to Islam/Moslems).
The same general concensus between or amongs religions would be (just) such as: we do good things, we get good rewards from God, we do bad thing we get bad rewards...or other similar things, which are teached by any "Bible", or "Al Qur'an", or "Wedha", or "Tripitaka", etc. And WE KNOW that all holy "bible" is given and came from God. And WE KNOW that God has the absolute truth(s) and never wrong.
I have never read AlQuran because I don't know how to read Arab characters (lol), BUT I do 100% believe that the Quran never teachs or asks the moslem to do bad things, or to hate other peoples/religions/cultures, or to make bombs, etc. Fact is (just), some of them are has "extrem minds" and think matter such as the "jihad" in a wrong way. In fact, I also find so many "moderate Islam" believers in Indonesia that blame and curse the extremist's acts. I think just it's same such as we Christians, would blame, or even curse other (same) "Christians" that do bad/evil things such as bombing pubic facility, stealing, cheating, or to kill other peoples for evil reason, and so on and on.
Sometime I think, WHY SEEMS more "bad moslems" than "good moslems"?? Well I'm not so sure with the answer, but fact is, that the majority of "bad moslems" are the ones from third world countries, not well educated, having poor conditions, being obsessed with the "jihad", etc. Jihad for good moslems is actually (I just try to explain it in english) more for effort to beat theirselves from evils, in general circumtances. It is not really/necessarily realated with such effort to hate, or war, or to attack other peoples, or other religion.
Lots of peoples "translate" the jihad improperly and tend to think that this is the problem/the trouble. It is not really the problem. The problem is, the extremist AS PERSON. Not their belief, not the Quran, not for good moslem peoples. To be true, we can't generate things, in many cases. Remember about three blind peoples think differently on an elephant? Because they don't know exactly how an elephant is. Same thing would happened when we generalise things. We can get a wrong opinion.
Another question is, WHY lots of moslem hate westerners, or Christians, or American, or Chinese?? I just have a guess on this. If poor peoples are "exposed" with a weatlh etnic, or cultures, or whatever, while this peoples aren't well educated (either by official school, or by the religion), being bothered or even sorrow because of many things etc (i just say "many things" because I don't want to talk about politic or history thing, although many of this would be related to talk)...then what would this people think about "these strangers"? Some with a blessed mind would think that that's okay/no problem, while others (maybe majority) would think that that is "not allowed", or even "should be eliminated".
Moslems have been teached by their religion/Quran, to avoid "bad things" such as nudity, pork/dog, etc, even bank's fee/tax. They are wrong to our opinion, but they are right to their belief. They also have been teached to fight for anyone/anything that attack or disturb them. Are they wrong? Maybe, but maybe not from their perspective. Make sense?
Even chinese ethnic, like me, is being prejudiced, or even hated by many local Indonesian. (not by all Indonesian). However, I "can understand" them because of the history back ground, and because I can forgive this kind of people. (Mongolian ever occupied some areas/islands in Indoensia long time ago, also that Chinese ever involved to communist party around 1960 or so. Also that chinese ethnic dominates the finances, tradings, etc overhere. Also that chinese usually like pork and love dog as pet). Again, make sense?
The most confusing and coward act, to my perspective is: WHY if they (the extremists) would like to fight or kill "the evil" they didn't/don't attack the evil but to innocent peoples??? (such as bombing public facility etc?)...The answer perhaps because they don't have "power" to do that. How they can attack strong & well equiped military personnel, for instance?
The Quran doesn't tell them to kill "your son's enemy" or so, but just they are. Maybe because of their civilization/cultures, or perhaps because of their thought: "if can't kill the father, then kill the sons to make the father sorrows". I think that's why they attack innocent peoples/citizens of their enemy....
However, I just think it is not wise to generalise things.
Please take my post as constructive inputs, not as critism or so...seb.