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If the "noisy, activist minority" are not radical or extremist then what are they exactly? What is the nature of the threat they pose? Are they simply conservative Muslims who, in their moral beliefs, have a lot in common with conservative Christians, Jews, Hindus?

Peter is trying to skate past the central point which is his belief that ordinary Muslims are extraordinarily weak-minded and will inevitably fall under the sway of some minority of Muslims. Conservative or radical or extreme? Who knows?

When those who are 'other' are under attack, whether they be Catholics ('Papists'), 'uneducated' Irish, 'primitive' aboriginals, (I could give examples at length) the old slur appears. These are people with diminished mental capacity because of their religion or race. They are easily led, they're weak-minded, they're not like us with our superior and independent cognitive ability. This slur is unkillable because it's all part of the 'othering' that seems to be part of our tribal inheritance, the othering that Peter is currently engaging in.