More from Columbia professor Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.

CUOMO: “But there’s a counter-balance to it. You know, when you said, Dean, and we talked, we did your piece here, people should read it about the numbers, when you factor in who’s trying to kill Americans, right, terrorists in the name of Islam jump to the top of the list. And when you say, hey, let’s talk about why it’s happening, no matter how subtly you put it, it sounds like you’re justifying the actions of the terrorists, here is why they’re trying to kill you, and people don’t want to hear that.”

SHIHAB-ELDIN: “No, people don’t want to hear that, people don’t want to have conversations about why so many young, alienated youth might be, you know — we talk about how can we prevent the next attack? Well, there are ways to prevent it by talking about what’s actually motivating them versus what Dean is, you know, outlining, which is this notion of this perception that Muslims are perpetually in a clash with, you know, Western secular values. That’s not what this is about. Often times this is about revenge, whether rightfully or wrongfully, in the eyes of the people who do this. So, let’s have a more candid conversation and, just quickly to answer your question even though you put it to Dean, I think it should be said that there’s an element of racism and bigotry when we talk about, you know, what Bill Maher says sometimes or what certain people say when they say, well, you know this reflects on all Muslims. You know, this happens so much because, as Dean outlined, this is something that has been driven by the fact that the media, not just the news media, for better or worse since 9/11 has kind of adopted this Bush doctrine of painting Muslims as inherently evil. It happens in news and it happens in entertainment, unfortunately.”