I know how these terrorists are inspired

Ed Husain:

"Terrorism begins with a less extreme shade of Islamism, and in many cases Saudi-inspired Wahhabism - unless we understand the root causes of the theology of terror, we will not be able to defeat it...Wahhabism and segments of Islamism are defined by their rejection of mainstream Muslim teachings and age-old spiritual practices, literalist readings of scripture devoid of scholarly guidance, and a hell-bent commitment to confronting the West. Moderate Muslims have common cause with the West to extinguish extremism in our midst."

Literalistic readings of religious scripture is quite perilous. consider the following verse from the holly Koran:

[5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.

In other words, literally, if one has a Catholic friend, one by default exits Islam and enters Catholicism. The literal version of the verse might have been relevant during Muhammad's time, a period of constant religious struggle and antagonism between the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians but is, without a doubt, irrelevant and illogical in today's world. The Koran must be not a static but rather a living scripture that accomodates contemporary issues. We live in an ever-evolving world. The human species are very diverse and interdependent. The idea that no Muslim should take a non-Muslim for a friend but an enemy justifies and/or sows the seeds for animosity towards Americans and Europeans and leads to extremism and Jihadism. It must be noted that Muslim literalists are minority in number among Muslims but reign.