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Enabling Moderate Islam?

[ Foreign Policy] Steven A. Cook - There is scant evidence that extremists really do moderate once they assume power. Two years after Hamas' electoral victory and a year after its forcible takeover of Gaza, there are few signs that the Palestinian Islamist group has moderated. Western governments are seeking to find ways to make the moderates more powerful. Given the wildly different criteria for what constitutes "a moderate," policymakers will run in circles trying to determine who is a moderate and worthy of support, and who is not. One person's moderate is another person's radical, and a policy built on support for moderate Islam is only asking for trouble. Rather, policymakers should focus on identifying those who can contribute pragmatic solutions to the many problems we confront in the region, "moderate" or not. The writer is the Douglas Dillon fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2008-06-20 01:00:00
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