The full article can be found here.

First, Bauer observes that “Islam is not a murderous religion, and Muslims are no different from Christians, Jews, Buddhists, or Confucians.” That is, though obviously there are theological differences between these religions, there is no reason to conclude that Islam is especially predisposed to become violent.

The kicker here is the question, "so what exactly is 'Islam?'"

It does not take a brilliant person to figure out that the religion you read about in the holy books like the Bible or Koran is often not closely related to the religion you see practiced around you. The full article makes this point about Islam, showing that the radicalism is a phenomenon that developed within the lifetime of some people now living.

The real analysis should be "Is Islam as it is routinely practiced right now around the world predisposed to become violent?"

Considering the number of areas and acts of violence around the world that seem to have Islamic roots to them (look at a list of wars and violent actions and their causes), it gets pretty hard to conclude otherwise. In my view, the idea of the "violent nature of Islam" is kind of misleading. It's mostly characterized right now by a tolerance or acceptance by a non-violent majority of the violence of a small minority.

That being said, the good news is that religions evolve. Christianity right now seems to be relatively quiet and tolerant, but it obviously wasn't always that way. Islam could outgrow its violent period, assuming the radicals are put in their place.

We know about the wars and police actions being taken to eliminate violent radicals, and that's a valid approach as far as it goes. But how else can moderation be encouraged? What factors helped Christianity out of its violent period? What do we need to look out for to prevent it from going back there? The going policy right now is that if Islamic nations move toward more pluralistic governments and respect for human rights, the tendency to radicalism will fade. It remains to be seen how it will work. The radicals in Britain don't seem to be fading.

BTW, I agree with Bauer's views on appeasement.