Most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims—including 2.6 million in the US—are not terrorists. But, even if 99% of Muslims are peaceful, that means 16 million are potentially jihadist (or facilitators thereof), insofar as they take the Qur’an, hadiths, and Muhammad’s example literally.

Neither banning Muslim immigration nor revoking US citizenship is the answer to terrorism that is now both foreign and domestic. Rather, American law enforcement and intelligence should profile for increased Islamic religiosity, since there is a direct correlation between such and propensity to violence. Muslims should be welcome in the US—provided they can, first, prove their commitment to modernity and American civic values.

Dr. Timothy R. Furnish is a Woodstock, GA-based PhD in Islamic, World and African history who works as an author, analyst and consultant to the US military. His website is www.mahdiwatch.org.