(New York Times) Thomas L. Friedman - What's going on in Iran today is a combination of Martin Luther and Tiananmen Square - a drive for an Islamic reformation combined with a spontaneous student-led democracy movement. It reflects a deepening understanding by many Iranian Muslims that to thrive in the modern era they, and other Muslims, need an Islam different from the lifeless, anti-modern, anti-Western fundamentalism being imposed in Iran and propagated by the Saudi Wahhabi clerics. What's going on in Iran today is precisely the war of ideas within Islam that is the most important war of all. Only the disenchanted citizens of the Soviet bloc could kill Marx; only Muslims fed up that their faith is being dominated by anti-modernists can kill bin Ladenism and its offshoots.
2002-12-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive