On Intellectual Myopia

I often give more credit for the human intellect than it deserves. A friend of mine, who I have not seen for some time, but who I remain connected to through the medium of Facebook recently posted on his wall a link showing an outrageous act performed by religious Christians (the details are not important right now but suffice it to say it involved crucifixion). The act was either denounced or ignored as insignifican by the mainstream Christian world. He then argued, that if the world can see that such an isolated act is clearly that of fanatics and is not representative of Christianity itself, then why does the world not apply the same line of reason in judging Islam, with respect to the 911 attacks for example. . While the fact that Islamists have committed over 20,000 violent attacks since 911 was not evidence enough that the dreadful events of that day was not isolated, the existence of Islamist related groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian Twelvers, the Salafists, Hezbollah and Hamas as poweful forces within the Islamic World poured cold water on his poorly thought out argument. But as I pondered further upon the issue, what was more frightening is that my friend, who is highly educated, could draw such a faulty parallel that was so easily deconstructed. How was it that he was duped? Was he operating with wishful thinking? Was he in denial? or as a liberal - does he just not want to give credence and admit that anti-Islamist voices have been correct all this time. Either way he is either intellectually dishonest or just plain naive...but if this is the case with him...how many others are following suit? Its no wonder that Jihadists have been so successful in their propaganda strategies to date.