Again, you're going on contemporary Islam, not the Quran. As you said, what these people believe is what their governments and mullahs want them to believe. And that is usually not friendly to the West.
The religious leaders are powerful because the people make them so is more accurate than the idea that the people would be tolerant and secular if the religious leaders weren't stirring them up
Ah, the chicken and the egg. In Iraq, it's really about power. The minority Sunnis are used to running things, and don't want it to stop. The Shiites are actually showing great restraint, with their leaders pleading for the people not to retaliate for Sunni violence, thus continuing the cycle.
You know people don't want to admit that they are the source of their own problems. These religious leaders point to the West as the source and the people gather around them secure in the knowledge that their situation isn't their fault. Claiming an outside enemy is a great way to get people to rally around you, whether the enemy exists (as in the terrorists helping Bush win his second term), or doesn't (as in the mullahs telling their people that we are the reason for their desperate situation).
Frankly, it is my hope that the West begins the process of radically critiquing Islam and subjecting it's central texts to both scrutiny and open mockery
If you've read about any of the Bible inerrantists, you know that there will still be holdouts when all errors are laid open. But for the Quran that process already started years ago, and the authors are not yet dead. Of course, they don't dare study in any of the Muslim theocracies. They are not all as brave as Martin Luther, nor do they have the powerful protection of a Prince Frederick.
For the life of me I cannot fathom the point of your posts. Is it that we just need to give the Muslim world a century or two to sort out the message of their holy book?