The rise, battlefield success and vainglorious propaganda of the so-called “Islamic State” may prove to be a moment of clarity for Muslims worldwide.

This alleged state has suddenly caused all nations in its neighborhood to join a coalition with the United States to combat what is now seen clearly by all as a purely barbaric force. To this extent, it may be serving a historic purpose.

The “Islamic State” phenomenon is forcing a clean separation between those Muslims who wish to live by the peaceful fundamentals and intent of Islam from those who do not. Muslims who wish to live in harmony with the rest of the world, with civilized justice and without coercion, with equal rights for all, with benefit to their fellow man are in a large majority. That majority now knows that it must take stronger action against the anti-Islamic Muslim minority.

Long constrained by a tradition of showing deference to another’s faith and merely condemning criminal acts, Muslims watched extremists as they abrogated peaceful Islamic principles and took on what they claimed to be worthy causes with an end-justifies-the-means approach. As a result, violent men appeared to speak for our faith and were brought to prominence by media focused primarily on reporting bad news. The realization has been slow among Muslims, spread as they are among diverse cultures, that rotten apples spoil the lot for all of us, wherever we may live.

American Muslims, many of whom left dysfunctional economies and social systems in the Old World for better opportunities in the United States, find themselves under a cloud due to events in those ancient lands. Any confusion caused by rival propaganda or false-flag theories should now be replaced by clarity. We all must stand with moral certainty for civility and call out the violent ones such as the “Islamic State” for disgracing their faith in pursuit of political agendas.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, this tipping point seemed to arrive over the summer, when various Taliban and ​al-Qaida hiding in North Waziristan were finally attacked with vigor by the Pakistan army. This came belatedly, following the murder of more than 40,000 innocent civilians over the past decade, as the realization has set in that these forces represent an existential threat to civilized society.

Seventeen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban for daring to go to school and now a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and many like her who remain unheralded also helped embolden a civilized but silent majority against an inhuman culture masquerading as a religious movement.

The Middle East, where the “Islamic State” operates, has not fully recovered from the colonial period. It is still afflicted by monarchies and autocracies and is only now experimenting with the governing institutions of a contemporary society. Religion has been used as a tool of manipulation by both those in power as well as their adversaries.

Politicians since ancient times have cultivated and used those willing to make the ultimate sacrifice as pawns in their power quests. The bloodbath conducted by the government in Syria that has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people — aided, condoned or ignored by regional interests — reached a crescendo more than a year ago with the creation of the “Islamic State” and similar groups, such as al-Nusra and al-Khorasan, all of them subverting Islam so grievously that they now are giving rise to a powerful counterforce of mainstream Muslims.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the “Muslim United Nations,” said with newfound acuity that the “Islamic State” has “nothing to do with Islam” and has committed crimes “that cannot be tolerated.”

The American Muslim community and Muslim scholars around the world have repudiated and rejected the “Islamic State’s” twisted ideology, calling it not just un-Islamic but anti-Islamic.

An open letter to the “Islamic State” signed by more than 125 Islamic scholars from around the world deconstructed the group’s behavior and ideology by using broadly recognized theological references (lettertobaghdadi.com).

Such an effort is unique and important to publicize, especially within Muslim communities, to cut through the confusion and mitigate the potential allure of “Islamic State” propaganda on impressionable minds.

In the geographic zone of conflict, having borne the brunt of “Islamic State” savagery, the civilized majority of Muslims are taking action on the ground against this barbaric force. They need first to win the intellectual war, the tipping point for which seems to have arrived, followed by the physical war against the “Islamic State” and its ilk.

“Islamic State” forces also must be denied Islamic monikers of credibility. They should cease to be called the equivalent of knights and noblemen (jihadis) and not glibly labeled “Islamic” by an informed media. This only advances their propaganda of religious justification.

President Barack Obama has denied the “Islamic State” such recognition. He recognizes that there is nothing Islamic about this imagined state, and he has assembled a broad coalition to fight it. The next and most lasting step would be to help form educational and reformist support systems with all those in the region willing to set up modern civil societies, thereby enabling a progressive reduction in tyranny and the misery that sends so many unwitting minds into the arms of the monster that is the so-called “Islamic State.”

Safdar Khwaja is president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.

First Published: October 19, 2014, 4:00 a.m.