You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion.
“The truth is that many of their assumptions about the underlying causes of extremism are flawed. Every fresh terrorist attack “chips away” the idea that foreign policy and socio-economic factors are the sole drivers of Islamist extremism, making the Muslim default position more untenable.” I think the meaning of “chips away” in the above is “to lessen the effect”, “to weaken”. And the “Muslim default” here means cause due to Muslims. Please clarify and confirm.
chip away 
Re: chip away 
(There's a missing 'at' in the original.)
Linear Mode
