The events of September 11, 2001, forever altered U.S. strategic thinking on the Middle East. In January 2002, President George W. Bush declared that Western nations can no longer excuse or accommodate Middle Eastern regimes that oppress their people in the name of stability. In The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy, AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht examines the prospects for ending anti-American Islamic extremism and promoting democracy in the greater Middle East.

Gerecht argues that while the United States has too often favored "pro-American dictators" for fear that free elections might empower Muslim fundamentalists, the suffering of the people living under such dictators has bred anti-Americanism. The United States must align itself with the "growing Muslim belief that political legitimacy can only come from the ballot box" and realize that the critical players for a democratic transformation in the Middle East will be Shiite clerics and Sunni fundamentalists.

Grand Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's preeminent Shiite cleric, has declared that sovereignty rests with Iraqis participating in democratic elections. According to Gerecht, Sistani's call for democracy is more likely to be supported than calls for revolution in the greater Sunni world. As one Sunni elder from Samarra declared, "Religion is for God, but government ought to be for all the people." Sunni fundamentalists in Egypt have supported greater public participation in government, and even the ruling clerics of Iran's theocracy have been unable to stem the rise of democratic culture and pro-Americanism among the Iranian population.
 
Gerecht concludes that having fundamentalists compete for votes and the responsibilities of governance--far from something to fear--will change the political landscape of the Middle East and that Muslim democracies will prove essential to ending the conflict and competition between the West and Islam.