We should employ logic and reason?

There are many videos available where Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have tried just that and the results are there to see.

Quote: Our best defense against extremism is our reason and our tolerance.

No. The best defense is honestly. We need to tell Muslims:
1. We are offended by the hate, slander and calls to violence in the Quran. We must tell them that the brutal ravings of their Allah, a sadistic wantabe god that delights in barbaric torture, are an affront to decency and human rights.
2. We are offended by the evil deeds of their dear prophet, a man that for 10 years attacked his neighbors, committing all kinds of atrocities (looting, murder, rape of captives, torture and enslavement of men women and children). Well that what all of Islam’s own writings say, yet this man is considered by Muslims to be a great moral example.
3. We are offended by the way Muslims treat others in almost every society they dominate. In 50+plus Islamic countries, they discriminate and persecute nonMuslims, women and even other Muslims. In fact, this is a good reason to believe that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. When Muslims renounce the hate and violence in the Quran, condemn the nefarious actions of Mohammad, end the discrimination, the apostasy and blasphemy laws in Islamic societies, then we can dialog based upon common principles.

The fact is that Muslims have no capacity for reflection on Islam. They pretend that Islam is what they want it to be, instead of what the Quran says or even what Muslims do. They never apply to themselves the standards they demand from others.

Perhaps, who knows, items 1 and 2 explain not only item 3 but also the terror we see today. It is just about as easy for a turtle to fly as for a Muslim to be honest about Islam.

Mr. Hughes, we should be polite, but honest. We need to tell Muslims the things they don’t want to hear. The bigger problem is not “those that have tarnished and butchered their religion” but Islam itself. To be tolerant without being truthful about the evils of Islam is a recipe for disaster

" Do we use our reason and logic, and conclude that this is an extreme, radical wing that has bastardised an otherwise peaceful religion?"

Anyone who is familiar with Islam's history and ideology could not possibly arrive at that conclusion.

As previous commenters have stated, Islam is not a peaceful religion, it was invented by a bandit leader and his followers and, unlike Christianity and Buddhism, was initially spread by terror and conquest, IS is simply following Mohammed's example.

"We as a community have a responsibility to look to our best selves and not react emotionally despite provocation. Meanwhile, the Islamic community needs to be active in condemning the actions of those that have tarnished and butchered their religion."

Agree completely, however (1) the Islamic community seems rather reluctant to condemn the atrocities committed in the name of Islam and (2) do we really know what the actual level of support for IS is within Australia's Islamic community?

"Can we really be surprised that some young, idealistic Islamic youths struggle to 'live our way of life' when they are made to feel unwanted in the community?"

Of course, it's all due to the prejudices of majority society rather than the nature of Islam itself, it's the duty of Muslims to proselytise. Even if Australia were a multi-culti paradise, some Muslims would attempt to convert the Kuffars and destroy our liberal democracy, it's another phase in the 1400 year-long war against the infidels.

On the issue of Islam being a violent creed, which religion isn't?
Buddhism? Ask the Rohingya people of Myanmar what they think of that.
Christianity? In history, ask the native Americans how they were first introduced to Jesus, or the inhabitants of the Middle East about the Crusaders. Today, and isn't it Christians from the US, Europe and Australia who are wreaking such havoc across that same Middle East?
Judaism? Isn't the Old Testament full of exhortations to slaughter the enemies, to rip them out root and branch? And today, was there any call to ban Judaism following the recent slaughter of innocents in Gaza?
Intolerance, or at least a tendency to intolerance and the violence it carries in its wake, seems to be in the DNA of religion, and if religion is in the DNA of mankind, then no prizes for guessing where that takes us.
Either mankind, all of us, can do better than that, can rise above intolerance and violence, or we are doomed to an endless cycle of strife and finger-pointing justification for taking the lesser, the violent, way.
On the current challenge posed by ISIS, our PM has shown he has the courage to act. The question is, does he have the courage to think?

Religion is always peaceful.
Religion leads us to realising the common ground, that essence which I am, which you are and which "they" all are - we all are God, there is nothing but God, so how could one who realises that be violent... towards THEMSELVES?

The main question is thus: IS ISLAM A RELIGION?

It's quite clear that the Koran and Hadiths are contaminated by violent, anti-religious injunctions. It is also clear, however, that SOME of the teachings of Islam ARE religious inasmuch as they do bring people closer to God. It's also clear that MOST of those who consider themselves Muslims, ESPECIALLY those who enjoy a comfortable life, ignore those anti-religious injunctions - it's irrational, it's inconsistent, yet it's very common.

It's not true that the ISIS terrorists are willing to die for religion, or even for Islam: they are only willing to die selfishly, for their own carnal pleasures in heaven! The proof is that when they are attacked by women-fighters, they flee, believing that if killed by a woman they won't enjoy those pleasures.

A truly religious Muslim would say: "Dear Allah, I know that you've written in your holy book that those who die as martyrs enjoy all pleasures in heaven, but I am not tempted by heaven - I will forego those pleasures because I care for you alone: please make me fit and selfless to be worthy of you!".

We live in a world where their simply is no place for supremacists!
Be they white, KKK. Or mindless Isil, murdering all in the name of religion.
We have had Muslims here before Federation, mostly Afghans and mostly Sofie, which is a very peaceful, (do unto others as you would have done unto you tradition) oldest branch of Islam, with the least revised Koran!
I mean the people are now third or forth generation and virtually indistinguishable from any other Australian.
And could even be the bloke you have a couple of beers with after the footy, or the couple just down the road, who you had a b-b-q with just a couple of days ago; or the decidedly decent lady, who invariably mucks in when there's somebody needing help/a neighbor down on his or her luck.
It is just people who are different.
Inherently violent people learn what they live and then pass their brand of violence/rigid flat earth (must-insist-demand)firebrand cultural belief down through the generations.
And that can apply equally to any dumbed down/hugely revised creed or culture.
Instead of blaming or victimizing anyone, we so called Christians need to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk!
Like so many of our assimilated Muslim neighbors already do!
And stand up for the oppressed, even where we see it here at home, as some R Sole, (knuckle dragging neanderthal) victimizes someone for simply following their religious belief.
For heavens sake, my sainted mother wore a head scarf whenever going out, that nobody noticed, given that was very much the Irish Christian culture back then.
Q:How can you tell when a knuckle dragging Neanderthal is on the level?
A: He dibbles out of both sides of his mouth! Boom boom.
Rhrosty.