It's always been nothing but a death cult. And it can not live in an open society cause it is barbaric.
The New York Times and other media write things like this every year at Christmas, Easter, etc. They are too stupid to realize articles like this are an admission of Christianity's supremacy. They will get a few angry letters and emails from this, but most Christians will shrug the shoulders 'ok, believe what you want'.
Now, if they openly questioned Islam in such a way, the writer has put themselves in physical danger, put colleagues in physical danger because Islam was born by violence and death and it always be that way. As CS Lewis wrote "If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, “Are you Allah?” he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off." It can not and it will not live peacefully as part of the Western World. The Western World should never have given it an invitation.
GK Chesterton said:
“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”
That 'religion' has zero sense of humor. Humorless f-cks.