Ignorance. They know nothing about it and that allows people to fill the gaps in their knowledge with whatever bias they have. It's also true that all people hear about are Islamic terrorists. Obviously the jihadists represent a very small number of Muslims.
Well said. Ignorance and lack of information regarding the religion. Even Muslims themselves have found ways to interpret Islamic teachings to their own convenience to exploit situations according to their wants, example being Jihad.
Actually this illustrates the central problem with Islam, not it's wondrous benefits.
If a bakery produced wonderful cakes, but one in a thousand of those cakes killed everyone who ate it, that bakery would not be in business for long.