Keep in mind that meanness, depersonalization, division, and destruction fomented in the name of religion are still attitudes and actions antithetical to the beliefs and behavior of religion.

The mindset of religious extremism is vulnerable to powerful deceptions in which extremists often cease serving God and start playing God, lose touch with the value of diversity and devote themselves to an oppressive uniformity, and become blind to the reality that they are hurting their religion rather than advancing it.

The irony of religious extremism is that its devotees seek to impose their religion on others by violating the freedom for decision-making for everybody that is a prerequisite for authentic religious decisions and actions for anybody.

Extremist religious acts that eradicate freedom, destroy life, and violate human rights cause others to turn against the very religion that extremists hope others will embrace. So, acting in the name of religion, extremists assure a broad-based rejection of religion.

Left to the rabid whims and radical convictions of religious extremists, the world never will trust religion as a source of truth, reconciliation, and community.

Only when religion inspires respect for diversity, efforts to maintain religious pluralism, and protection for people’s basic rights and freedoms will religion enjoy the kind of authority, credibility, and inspiration that cause people not only to engage in private meditation, personal prayer, and public worship but to build healthy interpersonal relationships, secure freedom as a nonnegotiable factor in public life, and work for the peace externally that most accurately reflects the kind of peace internally that is a consequence of real religion.