Word: islamists
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...between the Islamic world and the West, and it's a good setting for bridge-building, for establishing increased dialogue." In the past, many Muslims regarded Turkey with some suspicion because of Ankara's strident secularism; Turkey was seen as a country ashamed of its religion. But with an Islamist party now in power, that perception is changing. Turkey has also emerged as a player in Middle Eastern affairs - brokering, for instance, a dialogue between Israel and Syria...
...just as Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese nationalist before he was a communist, Sharif probably has a bigger goal than pursuing Islamic extremism for its own sake. He has consistently sought alliances with other non-Islamist leaders. A former teacher, he helped found the ICU to try to restore law and order after one of his students was kidnapped by one of Somalia's marauding militia. And he has broken with al Shabaab, formerly the militant wing of the ICU and the main Islamist force in Somalia. That last prompted more extreme ICU leaders, such as Sheikh Hassan Dahir...
...Mogadishu for a few months in 2006 after ejecting the city's long-sparring warlords. The ICU imposed strict Shari'a law and, unwisely, declared a jihad on Ethiopia, which subsequently invaded and overthrew it at the end of 2006. In addition, the ICU tolerated the presence of extreme Islamist militants, including the Somali-based al-Qaeda group that blew up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people. (See pictures of al-Qaeda...
...flap underscores an emerging political trend. Since 9/11, polls have consistently shown that most Muslims do not want either an Iranian-style theocracy or a Western-style democracy. They want a blend, with clerics playing an advisory role in societies, not ruling them. As a consequence, Islamist parties are now under intense scrutiny. "Islamists, far from winning sweeping victories, are struggling to maintain even the modest gains they made earlier," says a recent survey by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In Iraq's recent elections, for example, secular parties solidly trumped the religious parties that had fared well four...
...Mutawa opted against it. "I want to see results, not just hope, before naming my children after a leader," he wrote. Such pragmatism is typical of the Muslim world's soft revolutionaries. They believe that their own governments, the Islamist extremists and the outside world alike have all failed to provide a satisfying narrative that synthesizes Islam and modernity. So they are taking on the task themselves. The soft revolution's combination of conservative symbols, like Islamic dress, with contemporary practices, like blogging, may confuse outsiders. But there are few social movements in the world today that are more important...