Is there any evidence that enlightenment is taking root in the Muslim world or are they sinking further and further into an abyss of ignorance?
This is a good question. I am not aware of any statistics that demonstrate this one way or the other. I would assess the situation as there being an increasing awareness of non-Muslim values but at the same time obvious points where things are going the wrong way, such as the increasing influence of Saudi-Arabia or the increasing acceptance of non-secular values by Erdogan in Turkey.
You talk as though there is ZERO cost to waiting and trying, it's not true. People are dying. People are suffering. Millions of them. Most of them Muslim. At some point someone will get weapons bigger than regular munitions that can be contained.
That is a misunderstanding. The costs of Islamism are obvious and acutely felt, especially in the Arab world. The question is what to do?
Where we seem to agree is that the problem is there are 1.4 billion Muslim who adheres to, or in some ways admire or support, interpretations of Islam that run counter to western values, as well as a significant minority of Muslims who are nuts (the long-beards brigade).
My ideas for what should be done are similar to what Ali outlined in her report
http://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/ali_challengeofdawa_final_web.pdf
(see the conclusion), in particular, a focus on combatting political Islam while trying to promote more benign forms of Islam [my main reservation are with the foreign-policy proposals which I think fail to address the elephant in the room, Saudi Arabia]. I understand that this is in parts a "waiting" approach with few active measures, but what else can be done than what she proposes?
We need to, at the very least, demonstrate that we have some resolve and are not weak because right now people are wanting to throw to gates open to the barbarians and put their hands up.
I agree.