MB Civic

By Lorenzo Vidino | Sunday, September 24, 2006 | The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/24/democracy_in_the_muslim_world/

Lorenzo Vidino, Analyst at the Investigative Project and the Jebsen Center at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, is the author of the book “Al Qaeda in Europe.” His take on the strategies that just might let us gain the upper hand in our struggle against radical Islam makes excellent reading, Spcifically, he proposes:

“Al Qaeda and other such groups …have made no argument to prove they could offer a better tomorrow to ordinary Muslims. If they ever achieved their lofty dreams of avenging Muslim pride and re establishing the caliphate, how would they make it work? Do they have an economic plan? And how about fixing potholes and collecting garbage? Only few in the Muslim world would sign up for a Taliban-style state that lacks everything except public executions.”

And then he drops the real bomb, the key to winning this whoe thing: “What can produce immediate gains is a head-on challenge of the enemy’s ideological shortcomings.” Not to mention a new heightened focus on the processes that radicalize Muslims…BS