Cathy Young does a nice job with her warning about Extremism and bigotry in the Boston Globe. Her smartest move?

Italian writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci by Margaret Talbot...rose to fame with her fearless reportage from danger zones and her gutsy interviews of famous and infamous public figures, has more recently drawn attention -- and, in the eyes of many people, become infamous herself -- with two polemics against the Islamic threat, "The Rage and the Pride" and "The Force of Reason."

Fallaci, who is currently facing legal charges of defaming Islam in Italy, has many defenders who describe her as a passionate anti-Jihadist unfairly accused of racism. Yet her recent writings do have an unmistakable whiff of racism, indiscriminately lumping together radical Islamic terrorists and Somali vendors of fake designer bags who urinate on the street corners of Italy's great cities. Journalist Christopher Hitchens, himself a strong polemicist against radical Islamic fundamentalism, has described "The Rage and the Pride" in The Atlantic magazine as "a sort of primer in how not to write about Islam."

Using someone in another country as an example. That gives it an actual chance of being read by those that most need to read it. Damn shame the important stuff had to be placed last.

These are ugly words, based on the bizarre assumption that the West must respond to religious intolerance in many Muslim countries with religious intolerance of our own.

Despite its manifest problems, Islamic culture today is not monolithic. There are regions, such as Bosnia, where the Muslim populations are modern and moderate; there are progressive and reformist forces within Islam. In the United States, where the social and economic structures are far more flexible and more conducive to the integration of immigrants than in most of Europe, Muslim radicalism has not been a serious problem. (In the United States, all Muslim protests against the publication of the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons have been nonviolent.)

The problems posed for the West, from within and without, by radical Islamic fundamentalism need to be honestly addressed. But if this response turns to anti-Muslim bigotry -- which on some "anti-jihadist" websites turns to defending Slobodan Milosevic's genocide against Bosnian Muslims -- it will leave us with little reason for hope. Fallaci's passion ultimately leads to a dead-end.