No. He doesn’t say there isn’t violence in islam, but rather that it isn’t a pervasive tenet for all muslims. Again, not blanketing all followers of the religion under the behavior of the worst, most violent ones. He points out in no uncertain terms where the zealots get their perceived “justification” for their violence, doesn’t sugar-coat the fact that they use their religion for this. Did you actually read the article or did you reject it out-of-hand because I used the term “balanced”?

Look, you can have whatever perspective you want, read what you want, don’t read what you don’t want. As I recall you’re former military and, as stated earlier, I simply cannot relate to your perspective as I’m not military. I would have to have been in your shoes to understand your perspective. This is in no way a criticism, but an honest admission that we come from differing points of perspective and it’s apparent we can’t find a basis to continue.

I won’t bother replying to you with more links or even just discussion on what I’m finding as I’m reading through the links you’ve suggested I read. I am learning (from that first link), disagree on some of the interpretation thus far, got about halfway through and then skipped through the second half, will try to find more time at a later date to delve deeper. Thank you, again, for the links.