Asra Q. Nomani

On Christmas Day, 2009, twenty-three-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 using explosives hidden in his underwear. A string of missed opportunities and errors by government security agencies culminated in what President Obama would declare a “systemic failure.” Is scanning everyone with expensive, high-tech equipment the best use of limited resources? Or should we use the information that we have—the knowledge that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, most terrorists are Muslim.

In the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the nature of Islam has consumed American political conversation. While some argue that zealous leaders have drowned out moderate voices and transformed the faith into a radical ideology, others claim the vast majority of the Muslim population — more than 1 billion people — is peaceful. Is Islam dominated by radicals?