individual,

I agree with you about hate speech. But again it can
come from any direction be it Muslim, Black, White, or
anything in between and refugees cop a great deal from
all sides. You have to take it on a case by case
and also look at the causes. It's not always religion,
but can be a variety of reasons.

Actually, it seems that Muslims very know very little about Islam. If you ask them about the hate, slander and violence in the Quran, they either don't know or don't want to know. When they are confronted, it is the usual excuses: "that was then" "infidels fault" "Bad translation" "only applies to some people" etc...

As to "lump together this vastly diverse group as backward, gender oppressive, and violent." Why not? Take a look at Islamic countries, they are diverse: many languages, ethnic groups, in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They all are human rights abusers. In fact, the only thing they have in common is Islam. Anybody who doesn't see a correlation between a disfuntional, oppressive society and Islam,
isn't looking hard.

As to Islamic dress, it tells me that a person accepts Islam without reservations and therefore that person believes he/she is better than us infidels, that we are "lower than animals" they are to fight us until we submit (all in the quran), that murder, plunder, rape, torture and slavery are not really wrong, it only depends on who is doing it, like Islam's prophet, for example (read any hadith, Tabari, Hisham, Kathir, etc...). Where do you think the Taliban get their ideas?

Yes, there are good Muslims, but they prefer not to talk about their religion. They go about their lives and are, at best, nominal Muslims.

but can be a variety of reasons.
Foxy,
Agree and, people producing excuses are contributing to making it increasingly harder to improve the situation !

individual,

It's not making excuses but trying to understand
something most of us know so little about. And
questioning is how we learn.