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Is there a way to counter violent anti-American extremism in the Islamic world? Since 9/11, the American hope has been--on both sides of the political aisle--to search for a silent majority of "moderate Muslims" as the cure for bin Ladenism. But are moderates really the answer to this dilemma? In his new monograph, The Islamic Paradox (AEI Press, December 2004), AEI resident fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht argues that those who have historically hated the United States the most will hold the keys to spreading democracy in the Muslim Middle East. Gerecht points out that Muslim "moderates" are not part of the Muslim mainstream and are not competitive in most Middle Eastern intellectual circles, which are increasingly dominated by fundamentalists. In the same way that pro-American dictators cannot defeat bin Ladenism, since they have been an important part of the equation that gave us that set of beliefs, Muslim “moderates” cannot defeat bin Ladenism because they do not speak to the same audience with the same language and passions.
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