Interesting reading, makes you think about the issues very pragmatically even if some of the minor details can be debated.
Western (European) culture and the Muslim world have had an interesting history of interaction. I certainly agree with the timeline laid out in terms of the ebb and flow of fanaticism/militarism. The Muslim/Arab world has seen great periods of scientific and mathematical advancement. Europeans learned trigonometry from them (Sine and Cosine are a corruption of the Arabic words, I believe) among other things.
I think a lot of the current strife in the Middle East can be traced to the arbitrary drawing of borders post-World Wars. Not that their shooting of each other and us is our fault, but it certainly gave a "rich" environment for sectarian and ethnic strife.