What's gives you the authority to say that they're simply doing this in the name of Islam and not because they actually believe in their religion? Oh wait, you got none.
Er.. in the end someone must interpret or judge or whatever you wanna call it what exactly this thing is. So when you say overwhelming majority you are indeed making an appeal to popularity. Tell me how else you, as an outside party who does not take sides in this dispute, will determine who is the true member?
I thought it was implied in my post, but obviously it was not.
In every discussion both sides are operating with an individual set of values and morals which they think is right. After that it's just about making the strongest case for your argument.
On one hand you have a generally peaceful and moderate set of values which has neither intent to harm nor does it frequently harm, if you break it down into consequentialistic point of view the basis for judgement is about the "rightness" or the "good" conduct or outcome. On the other hand you have a fraction of the total pool of "Muslims" (I hate the fact that I have to generalize in this manner, but I really do here) who are all about the opposite, who are not compatible with the world as it is today and who do much more harm than they do good.
So when we need to define "the path" we need to have all these factors in the calculation. For me there is an obvious answer, but you're free to argue the opposite. If we are to make general comments on Muslims and Islamic faith, then it's much more feasible and sensible to make it based on the vast majority of good rather than the fraction of evil.