A religious mind set

Subject: A religious mind set.

It seems to me that much of the liberal discussion around what makes an ISIS terrorist go out to blow themselves up, along with innocent people is that the mindset is 'presumed' rational. The irrationality of extremist views, i.e. people who hold their specific religion pre-eminent in their lives have little or no common rationality. The cause outranks the mayhem and public trauma since the religious cause fills every crevice in the terrorists life, it is the be all and end all of their existence.
The term religion is such a broad church (no pun intended). From the benign Church of England style Christianity to the intensity of the Later Day Saints. From Orthodox Jews who proclaim the West Bank to be part of Israel's Promised Land  and show a contempt for Palestinian claims and place the Palestinian Arab in a category far beneath them, to the Hindu who segregates people according to their birth in the infamous caste system. Then we have the Muslim faith with its cleft between the disputed claims for leadership on Prophet Mohamed's death (Sunni and Shia) with a willingness to pronounce a fatwa or a Jihad against the enemies of Islam.
Islam is a religious movement which carries so much baggage. It seems to engender in its followers an extreme sense of beleaguerment and entitlement. A survival strategy which teaches the importance of strict adherence to the detail of the faith and a rigour of worship that is, in the West, alien.  The preacher has a text which seems a mixture of religion and historical politics interwoven to bring the past into the present.
The diktat surrounding dress, particularly female dress is medieval in nature but significant as a dress code to distinguish them from us. The faith and culture is not only patriarchal in emphasis but is tribalistic in its insistence on conformity. To be a good Muslim you must conform.
Conformity is the key to how people become so locked in. The Muslim life is dictated by the pulpit and what the pulpit preaches is god's word. The Imam who could also be a hate monger, encourages the congregation to recognise its uniqueness and has a ready audience, a pliable audience who readily promulgates their community values into that collective called, being Muslim. It 'out values' any sense of nationality or the norms within another society, since god's calling is greater.
Western sociologists try to emphasise the importance of 'education' in deradicalising young Muslims, but if that education is seen to flow across the values of the faith, in any way then it "has to be rejected". There are no ifs and buts. It is called a religious 'faith' because it often lacks a rational explanation.
In the west we have become agnostic to religion and would rather go our individualistic, often hedonistic way, paying little or no allegiance to anything.  A total anathema to a Muslim person.
Not understanding, we continue to hope for integration but how can there be integration when the fundamentals are so different.
We are in a bind because the numbers make the impact within our society of this foreign religion, critical. The implications are not of the same as our acceptance of single sex weddings or even xenophobia, the cultural structure and strictures within the faith make for impossible bed fellows.
Only we of "no faith" can accept the change since having no steadfast faith. Perhaps  we should be pliable and adaptable since what ever we think, long as the rewards are there, our masters will put in place what ever is necessary to make it worth their while.