Reform vs. Islamism in the Arab World Today

MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) has an excellent article on their website that explains the historical roots of today's radical Islamic terrorism. The article follows the progression from the barbarism practiced by early Moslems in fulfillment of their religious idealogy against non-Moslems to how the most extremist views would be extrapolated by radical clerics from the religious texts of Islam and distorted then distorted again and again by the followers of the early clerics unto today's radical extremist clerics of Islam and from that, twisted yet again to fuel a war of hate and terror and death against "the west." MEMRI suggests there are two camps that exist inside the world of Islam - one based on hate for the infidel and calling for all-out jihad until all the world is brought under the Islamic lash...or dead, and then there is the more moderate school of thought that seeks coexistence with the rest of the planet. So far, the radical voices seem to hold the most sway in the Islamic world and the MEMRI article suggests some of the reasons why this is so. I'm sorry to say that this article does not hold out much hope that the moderates will ever prevail. Still, the article is eye-opening and quite fascinating. You can READ IT HERE. See also: "Contemporary Islamist Ideology Authorizing Genocidal Murder"