Let's talk about Islam

A friend of mine told me something today. He said, "Hating on Islam is the new cool thing." I had no response to that. Now, I've got friends of all religions and we all get along with one another with no quarrels whatsoever. However, the real world is not sunshine and rainbows.

Let's take a look at the whole Palestine and Israel incident. From my standpoint, I don't exactly understand what is going on, but I don't exactly understand why Israel has all the support that it does from the Western world. I get that people are scared of Islam at the moment, but isn't Israel fighting a war against a country much weaker than they are? Palestine has lost almost 90% of the land that it has owned since 1946, its merely a shadow of its past. I don't understand this, can someone please explain this to me?

I think that like Christians, there are both good Muslims and bad Muslims. I would say that the good Muslims are the ones that I've met in my life, that are accepting of others and are open to new ideas. These are the peaceful Muslims who follow the real teachings of the Koran. Then there are those radical Muslims, who do not actually follow the teachings of the Koran. These are the Muslims who disrespect others and these are the ones that often use violence to obtain their objectives.

My uncle once told me that the rise of Islam is similar to the rise of Christianity. He said that Christianity has had a long time to sort itself out and that Islam is simply going through that phase. This was an interesting point, any thoughts?