THE ISLAMIC PARADOX pdf download

The Islamic Paradox Shiite Clerics Sunni Fundamentalists And The Coming Of Arab Democracy

THE ISLAMIC PARADOX

Is there an end to bin Ladenism?

The wars on terrorism and in Iraq and Afghanistan could become futile endeavors if holy warriors endlessly regenerate themselves, drawing strength and recruits from an ever-vibrant Muslim jihadist culture.

September 11 propelled us massively into the Middle East. As American and foreign body counts mount in military actions abroad, spreading democracy in lands where the United States is increasingly unwelcome seems to many dangerously naive.

The Arab world appears to hate us as much as it ever did imperial Great Britain and France.

 Serious people in Washington talk about an expeditious withdrawal from Iraq. Prestigious think tanks plan departure scenarios and dilate on what went wrong.

 The Democratic nominee for president. Senator John Kerry appears to view stability, not democracy, as the primary precondition for an American exit from Mesopotamia.! Even pro-war Republicans have public doubts about the wisdom of the invasion.

 In private, at Washington’s working lunches and dinner parties, more and more people question—or forget—their approval of President George W. Bush’s decision to topple Saddam Hussein.

For many on the left and right, the Iraq war is disconnected from, indeed counterproductive to, the Bush administration’s struggle against Islamic extremism and its hopes to see the region politically transformed.