( CNN ) -- When the news flashed last week that a man had shot and killed a Canadian soldier in front of the National War Memorial in Canada , what most people were wondering -- but not saying out loud -- was , `` Is it another radical Muslim ? '' And it was . As was Martin Rouleau Couture , the man who ran over two Canadian soldiers in Quebec . As was Zale Thompson , who attacked four police officers in Queens , New York , also last week . It 's why I have said before -- we have to be honest , there is a problem in the world of Islam today . Some people have found in it an ideology of opposition and violence against the modern and Western world . The three jihadis who burst onto the news last week represent that ugly phenomenon . But let 's dip deeper into these three people to understand what moved them to become terrorists . None of them was born and brought up a religious Muslim . A profile of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau in The New York Times suggests someone who went from a life of partying as a 16-year-old to repeated arrests for drug possession and stealing a credit card . He was once sentenced to prison for two years for possessing a weapon in a robbery . In the Times article , one of the counselors at a Salvation Army shelter described his battles with addiction thus : `` He was doing heroin to take the edge off crack . '' Amidst this turmoil , the Times says , he converted to Islam , got radicalized , sought to go to Syria to fight in the jihad and finally ended up trying to wage his own version of it in Ottawa and died after killing a soldier . The man who ran over the soldiers in Canada last week reportedly converted to Islam only a year ago . The New York Police Department says the man who attacked its officers with a hatchet , also clearly disturbed , converted to Islam two years ago . These are not people steeped in Islam -- people for whom the religion has shaped their worldview over decades , people who were motivated by their immersion in the religion . On the contrary , these were unstable young men , prone toward radicalism and violence . They were searching for an ideology that would fit their disturbed worldview , and in the radical and jihadi interpretations of Islam , they found it . It is always worth remembering that these people represent a tiny minority . After all , think of it this way : Terror groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and al Qaeda have been calling on Muslims to engage in terrorism in Western cities for over 10 years now . But of the some 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide , the number who have responded to these calls is a small , small , small percentage . If all Muslims were radicals , we would have more than three to worry about last week . And yet , there is a problem within Islam . It is not enough for Muslims to point out that these people do not represent the religion . They do n't . But Muslims need to take more active measures to protest these heinous acts . They also need to make sure that Muslim countries and societies do not in any way condone extremism , anti-modern attitudes and intolerance towards other faiths . Muslims are right to complain that there is anti-Muslim bigotry out there . But they would have a more persuasive case if they took on some of the bigotry within the world of Islam as well .
We have to be honest -- there is a problem in the world of Islam today , says Fareed ##i . Those involved in attacks last night are not yet steeped in Islam , Zakaria says . Muslims can take on some of the bigotry within the world of Islam as well , he says .