bellwells expressed a view about "Islamists", NOT Muslims, and his views are probably shared by many Muslims. From what I see I don't care for "Islamists" either (nor theocratic fundamentalist Christians). These are "isms" out to get the rest of us. Islamists are the Taleban and Al Qaeda, Wahabis and the like. People who murder innocents for their "cause", oppress women, deny education to girls, and lock boys up in rooms to recite mumbo-jumbo all day. Sorry, don't like it.
I think bellwells trust of fundamentalist Christians is misplaced though. They are behind the policies abusing people around the world, giving strength to the Islamists and tearing down the USA. Bush et al work on their behalf and have succeeded in bringing the USA military and economic strength so low, we could soon be looking at the end of the American Phenomenon (in manifestation, if not spirit).
Plot, I have always felt on the side of the native Americans and lamented the waste of native cultures and nations worldwide, the horrible genocide. These slave-owner "founding fathers" were far from perfect. Still you won't find anything like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights before that time. This set the stage for all people, including conquered indigenous nations to fight for their rights, opened the way for Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, the real saints of our times. I don't know how it came this way. Certainly it was not the "founding fathers'" intent for blacks and women to vote. I guess I believe in the principles that were given a "beginning" in the founding of the United States and the French Revolution; these principles were picked up by people and improved upon. Say what you like, the rest of the World has looked to this as THE hope and THE way ever since, despite oppression from Nazis, Communists, Wahabists, and even the United States Government itself.
Secular and rational rule of law, and equality. SOME form of representation (at least until the Supreme Court took away our vote). Personal freedom, inalienable rights,... Science, even. All these things have been thwarted all along in this very country-- but this is the core that persists and tries to come to the surface. People will continue to be imperfect, even evil. And even the people who have seized power in the United States will work to tear it down.
Sorry for the long post. It isn't all black and white.