Islam vs. Islamism: there is a difference

To many Westerners, Islam equals terrorism, and that is unfortunate for the Muslims living in the West who have assimilated and are productive citizens. There are Muslims practicing Islam who do not  condone Islamism, which is an extremist political/legal system that uses Jihad to enforce conversion under threat of death. ISIS is the poster child for Islamism and has executed many Muslims, who do not abide to their form of Islamism, as well as non-Muslims.
The following articles are from the Clarion Project which is an excellent source and attempts to glean the truth regarding the issue. It is neither blindly apologetic for extremists by spouting moral equivalence, nor blanketly anti Muslim in its work. It tries to deal with facts.
One may learn the difference between the two, and/or choose to disagree with certain points.

Five Things That Are Not Islamic Extremism
What is legitimate public expression of religion and where does it cross into extremism? Counter-extremism activist Maajid Nawaz isolates the key factor as control, saying:
“Islamism is the ideology of seeking to impose any version of Islam over society. Jihadism is the use of force to spread Islamism.”
This definition clearly delineates the problem as political rather than religious.

But sometimes people confuse legitimate religious/cultural expression with attempts to impose Islam. This is partially because some religious practices are, while valid and non-coercive, very public and can be intimidating to those unfamiliar with them.
Here are five examples of where Islam in the public sphere is perfectly acceptable.
Further discussion on the following five areas here
1.Building Mosques
2.Wearing a Hijab
3.Legal Aid for Terror Suspects
4.Requesting Halal Food and Prayer Breaks
5.Being Inspired by Faith to Make the World Better

The following discusses the issues of religion within the state and asks the question,
Can We Compromise?
Home > Political Islam > In the US > Legal Issues > Can We Compromise? By Elliot Friedland
Islamism is a political ideology based on a specific religious understanding of Islam. It’s this blurring of religion and which makes Islamism so objectionable. But targeting Islamism cannot be allowed to become targeting of Islam in general.
So which laws would constitute a reasonable, fair and relatively lasting platform upon which to base societal relations on issues of religion and state? Here are outlined several possible compromises which in the author’s opinion preserves Islamic religious rights without legitimizing extremist Islamist politics. (emphasis mine)
Entire article

Piety or Politics: An Inside Look at the Burqa
Home > 101s > 101s > Piety or Politics: An Inside Look at the Burqa
By Meira Svirsky
Where did the burqa come from? Is it required by Islamic (sharia) law?
These are question often posed about the garment which covers a woman from head to toe with a slit or netted opening for the eyes.
Dr. Elham Manea, a Swiss-Yemeni academic and author of Women and Sharia Law, answered these questions in an illuminating interview with ABC Australia.
Firstly, said Manea, “The burka is not Islamic. It’s a tradition that comes from the heart of Saudi Arabia, a region called Nejd.”
Until the 1970s, the garment was not worn outside this region until the Wahabi regime came to power, which she said resulted in the “re-Islamization” of Saudi Arabia and the mainstreaming of the extremist Wahabi principles.(emphasis mine)

Add that to the tremendous amount of money that Saudi Arabia invested across the world to export this ideology.
“With Gulf money you had a promotion of this ideology and a reading of Islam that turned the burqa into an ‘Islamic’ tradition,” Manea explained.
Manea, who is a member of the University of Zurich’s political science institute and a former adviser to the Swiss government, said the Quran requires that both men and women “cover and be modest,” but in terms of specifics, it is left open to interpretation. (emphasis mine)

“[The burqa] is a sign of segregation, separation, rejection of the values we see all around us — values of acceptance and tolerance and otherness,” she said. “[It reflects] a culture that treats woman as a sexualized object that has to be covered.”
Entire article here

Brief message from Raheel Raza,  who is part of the Clarion Project and works tirelessly for the advancement of women's rights under Islam:

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