The only way to understand what we are facing with Islamic extremists is to deal with it like we deal with invading aliens in science fiction.  They ain’t like us.  They may look like us, but they aren’t like rational, normal humans at all.  It is remarkable they are able to breath the same air and need water to survive.  They are that completely alien.  We would know how to fight them if they had tentacles like the creatures in Independence Day, or green blood and pointed ears like Romulens, or were human-cyborg combinations like the Borg.  The problem is they look like normal human beings, just like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  They are as ferocious as the Klingons without their sense of honor and morality.  They are as adaptable as the Borg and as larcenous and immoral as Jobba the Hutt. The mullahs who brainwash their people are like dark Lords of Sith with Mullah Omar as Emperor Palpatine (I use MO because I think OBL is dead).   We’re not talking sweet and cuddly aliens like tribbles, but cruel vicious monsters with ravenous appetites like the Alien.  It is almost as though they implant their babies inside innocent victims where they eat their way out, consuming and destroying that which gave them sustenance for growth.  Islamic extremism requires absolute obedience like the Freman of Dune and mindless devotion like the cults of Bejor.