Do Muslims around the world oppose extremist views? What is the evidence of this?

I don’t believe it is just "fundamentalist" Muslims that do not practice a politics of inclusion. The Koran (and other souces of mainline doctrine) is full of examples that teach that infidels and unbelievers are to be converted by means of the sword, or die by the sword, nor any distinction between religion and politics.

Does Congressman Ellison plan on speaking out on behalf of the Islamic ummah?

Well, given his remarks, he certainly ought to agree with Bush, the author of the Religion of Peace meme. Whose policy obviously is broader than just the Jihadi nuts. Ellison could get behind the president, couldn’t he?

I often hear this call that goes something like "Where are the GOOD Muslims who oppose terrorism?".

Just about all Muslims I know oppose terrorism. But you won’t hear them on FOX News or Hannity because they condemn terror whether the bombs are strapped to someone’s waist or dropped from an A-10 Thunderbolt from the safety of 4000 feet. They condemn both sides as do true Christians.

What some people really want to hear are Muslims who will ONLY condemn the Muslim extremist violence and praise American violence as valor. They want to them to say Americans are waging a God sanctioned holy war.

I’m with Forbes on this one. Joseph K: cite any evidence to convert your "reality" re Muslims from a personal hope (nay, belief) to a fact-based claim.

The reality is that muslims around the world view Isreal as a threat. The reality is that they are sympathetic to some of the terror...the reality is that they believe that they are suffering a lot of persecution for being Muslim. But at the same time I think Dr. Knippenburg is correct in saying that a majority of Muslims are not extremists themselves. They are sympathetic to the concept of Jihad, but they may not believe that all suicide bombers trully deserve the Jihadist credentials. I would think that a great majority of muslims are moderate, even including some who are quite conservative. If the concept of Jihad existed in Christianity then there would be a sect of christians who believed that abortion clinic bombings were justified(instead of a few lunatic individuals), there might also be a sect(say the Southern Baptists) that frowned on this violence but disagreed with the existance of abortion clinics, and there might within the mix be some frustated souls who secretly support such terrorist action. Just as conservative christians might disagree strongly with the bombing of abortion clinics so even conservative muslims might exist who disagree with suicide attacks in Israel. And I do think that a lot of the attachment to radical Islam is cemented by radical secularists. Islam isn’t a religion (nor is christianity in my opinion) that looks at the world using the lens of the enlightenment. Islam is a religion that feels itself isolated and read out of the rationality of modernity. I always laugh when I read Joe’s attacks on those attacking religion...I don’t think either side has it right...and when it comes to Islam I don’t think anything is as pertinent as understanding the existential squeeze being put on the world’s 1.2 billion muslims(really that is what the secularists are trying to do to christianity...as if John Locke never existed..and as if a majority of christians were not reconciled with being "liberal" in a quasi-modern/classical sense) If Jefferson was able to open the bible or the Koran and find points of agreement the number of common points is shinking yearly. The question isn’t are muslims capable of being moderate...rather the question is...how big is the razor blade?