Freedom and Justice in Islam

[Pindar]

Thanks for the piece,Pindar.

My pleasure.

I wonder if our intel, diplo, and military communities even try to understand the 'disconnect' between our worldview and that of middle-easterners.

I think this is one of the critical weaknesses in prosecuting the war. Prior to 9/11 and afterwards the Intelligence Community has lacked the cultural/linguistic perspective and infrastructure to either properly infiltrate or engage rhetorically Salafi Islam or as Lewis refers to it Wahhabism. I think one critical feature to understand is that Salafi Islam is in many ways an innovation and can be effectively countered even from within a Muslim dynamic. Moreover, there are features of historical Islam that also lend themselves toward a democratic model.