"... a good number of Muslims of recent generations, who have come to see Muslim as a collective identity that links them to a wider world – much to the chagrin of many more Muslims who'd prefer their religious faith be a private and incidental part of their complex individual identity...."

Where is all this chagrin? No evidence of it that I can see. In fact, the opposite is true. In every western nation where there are large concentrations of Muslims, there is agitation for implementation of Muslim laws and practices.

Oh I am sure that there are some, perhaps many Muslims who would prefer a separation of religion and state, a concept that cost the blood millions of westerners over a thousand years of struggle before it came to be widely accepted (in the west).

But those dissenting Muslims are largely silenced, and in more than a few cases, have a price placed on their heads by Muslim leaders.

I'll say this about Saunders - he certainly does see things that few others do.