" in their wars of imperialist conquest,"
In which case, the world would be full of people hating each other's religions, - murder and exploitation in the name of Christianity, being a front runner in this.
Start pinning the sins of States who have used religion as an excuse for hatred and none of us gets out of here alive.
As late as the early 20th century, 'gallant little Belgium' slaughtered up to ten million Congolese colonials in pursuit of rubber - are the descendants of the people of Leopold or the Christian Church who supported him in line for hatred because of those actions?
Britain built an Empire and exploited a large slice of the planet "with a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other".
Today's Jihadists are fanatics that the west have empowered by inaction and self-interest.
We stood by and watched Assad imprison, torture and murder his people and did nothing - we even voted in our parliament to do nothing - the result being that a tiny bunch of fanatics stepped into the gap, offered the opposition that wasn't forthcoming from the wealthy west and blossomed into a massive threat.
We sell weapons do despots who oppress their people and would rather see dead children carried out of the sea, than offer safety to those fleeing despotism which has been propped up by our arms and our support because "they may be monsters, but they are "our" monsters".   
We fill our shops with goods produced in lethal conditions for slave-level wages because they are cheap, and we sneer at "economic migrants" who try to better the lives of themselves and their families and describe them as a "threat to our way of life"
The wealthy 'Christian' west is very much in need of Dr Christian Barnard's pioneering surgery - we have become totally inured to compassion and humanity.
Islam is no more violent and threatening than any other religion - go look up 'The Evil Bible' if you want the quotes.
In the hands of fanatics, any religion is dangerous and it is at its most dangerous when it attempts to take the moral high ground
Christian terrorism has a track record that goes back centuries and challenges the worst of them, so let's not be too smug and "holier than thou".
Jim Carroll