Context

I talked about Kristol's rant on how we're not hating Islam purely enough for his tastes when we talk about the Mumbai tragedy, and Matt Eckel at Foreign Policy Watch speaks clearly on the same topic:

I'm not quite sure where to start here. Yes, Nussbaum does focus on violence directed against Muslims in India by Hindu nationalists - violence that has been horrific, large-scale, organized, systemic and woefully persistent - because it provides some context to the situation in region. It doesn't justify the attackers. It ought not evoke empathy for them. It is, though, an aspect of the ethno-religious conflict in South Asia that people should consider when they try to make sense of what's going on there. Professor Nussbaum does her readers a service in illuminating it. "Islamist terror" and "Jihadism" aren't the end-all-be-all-catch-all enemies of humanity. They are phenomena that thrive in particular places and grow out of particular circumstances. If we want to curb their spread, an understanding of those circumstances might not be amiss. Oh, and by the way, comparing the situation of Indian Muslims to that of some minorities in the United States isn't liberal self-flagellation. It's context.

My emphasis.