Obviously intended to accompany PBS’s recent commercial for Islam, Legacy of a Prophet, here’s an interview with one of radical Islam’s chief deniers, Karen Armstrong (hat tip: LGF reader Susan)—who actually uses the often-mocked words “religion of peace.” According to Armstrong, the 9/11 attacks were “totally unrepresentative of the Islamic tradition,” even though:

Americans have found for the first time in their history, really, that they, too, like the rest of the world, are on the front line.

The front line of what? She doesn’t say.

It’s important to Armstrong to make sure we know that whatever Islam may or may not be guilty of, the West is just as guilty—if not more so.

We’ve got to carry on trying to understand. It’s no good falling back on old patterns of bigotry, because we have enough to be worried about, goodness knows, without creating extra bogies to concern ourselves. It’s very important that people see what Islam is, and what it is not, and see these acts of violence, especially the September 11 acts of violence, as totally unrepresentative of the Islamic tradition, and so the more education that goes on, the better — education on all sides.

Muslims, too, have got to change some of their textbooks to give their children a better, more balanced view of Jews and Christians. Christians have got to change their textbooks. I’m still shocked by the way the Pharisees are presented in some school textbooks, giving children a very distorted notion of Judaism.

Oh yes, we’ve all heard about those notorious textbooks, with their racist representations of …Pharisees? How strong is the gravity on Armstrong’s world?

The only battle she thinks we need to fight is against our own bigotry:

All of us have got a struggle on our hands. This has been a terrible wake-up call. We can’t afford bigotry. We live in one world, whether we like it or not, and we cannot afford to live in ignorance of one another any longer.

Luckily for us unwashed western Neanderthals, Islam is “profoundly in tune with the whole American and western ethos.”

The heart of Islam beats with the heart of the American people. The passion that Islam has for equality — Islam is one of the most egalitarian religions I know and has always lived out its egalitarianism. It’s at its best historically when it has had egalitarian forms of government, and [it is] unhappy with authoritarian forms of government, as it has now. That’s one of the reasons Islam is unhappy, because it has a lot of despots and bad government and tyrannical government, some of which are supported by the United States and the West generally.

Let’s attempt to parse out her point. Islam is an egalitarian religion, profoundly in tune with American ideals of justice and freedom, but at the same time Islam is “unhappy” because America has been supporting bad governments. Wha? In any case, it’s all our fault again, although it’s not clear what we’re at fault for, because Islam is egalitarian and peaceful albeit somewhat unhappy.

I’m getting a headache.

The most revealing statement in this air-headed, self-contradictory idiotarian wallow:

If we encourage the smallest degree of bigoted attitude towards Islam, we are creating further problems for ourselves, further acts of terror.

Does she even realize what she’s saying? If we have even the slightest doubt that Islam is a tolerant, egalitarian, peaceful religion, we’re asking for terrorism?