Word: secularization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...devolve to the moderate Shi'ites and Sunnis or to the fundamentalist insurgents of both sects who have made parts of the country terrorist sanctuaries? Will pro-democracy reformers in Iran wrest power from the country's aging theocrats or be squelched by a new crackdown? Can Pakistan's secular government and Saudi Arabia's ruling family survive the increasingly violent campaign waged by bin Laden--linked extremists to destroy them both? Here's a glimpse at the global war for the future of Islam--and what it may mean for the rest of the world...
...effort to draw students away from Saudi-funded fundamentalist madrasahs, or religious schools, where 1.5 million Pakistani children spend nearly all their time memorizing the Koran in Arabic, even though few Pakistanis speak the language. Pakistanis say that so far the government has failed to build new secular schools that would provide an alternative to the madrasahs. Religious conservatives are trying to expand their reach: a Pakistani cleric and Member of Parliament has launched a campaign to shut down cybercafes throughout the country, describing the Internet as a "red-light district...
...inviting French Muslims like Butt to take sides against that republic. The insurgents were threatening to kill two abducted French journalists unless the government rescinded the head-scarf ban. But the government refused to do so, and even though they disagree with the law, French Muslims rallied behind their secular leaders. "The drama in Iraq must not lead us to renounce this law," said Lhaj Thami Brèze, president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, which has ferociously denounced the ban in the past. "It's a question of legality. After all this, despite all this...
...targets in Russia. Still, the bitterness and despair engendered by the five year crackdown have seen Islamist influence grow. This is manifested in the emergence of suicide bombers, although the Chechens depart from conventional Qaeda practice by using women in this role - a habit learned, perhaps, from the secular nationalists of Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, the movement that claims authorship of suicide bombing as a terror weapon. Simultaneous attacks on two airliners, of course, is another Qaeda operational signature...
...cannot snuff out a politically motivated insurgency. Instead, in Chechnya - as, perhaps, in the Palestinian territories - a military response that has left open no political track to more moderate nationalist elements has tended to work in the favor of the Islamists, and broaden their influence at the expense of secular nationlalists. Indeed, Chechnya today sees elements ranging from Mashkadov and Bashayev to disparate local commanders and even bandits and gangsters in broad consensus over fighting the Russians...