Benard appears to see little merit in Islam as such. For her it appears like a long litany of woes, asystem of cruel oppression and barbaric laws. Her own understanding of Islam is, to say the least,pathetically inadequate and flawed. Thus, for instance, she speaks about two suras that were 'lost inthe process' of the production of the Qur'an as a single document, and claims, without adducing any evidence,that this point is 'widely accepted'. She approvingly refers to unnamed 'modernists' who reportedly insistthat some verses of the Qur'an 'may also have been falsely or inaccurately recorded', without citing any prooffor the argument. Likewise, her sweeping statement that 'Madrasas specifically educate boys to die young, tobecome martyrs' is completely fallacious, and too broad a generalization to be taken seriously.
Given her own views about Islam, it is hardly surprising that Benard rules out completely any possibility fordialogue with Islamists or even with non-violent Muslim traditionalists, conveniently forgetting, of course,America's long history of close cooperation with such groups in the not so distant past. Likewise, she ishostile to the idea of serious dialogue with 'traditionalist' Muslims.