And what a challenge it will be...

Submitted by Guy Rodwell (Monaco), Aug 23, 2002 at 12:48

Your commentary is to be applauded in not attributing 9/11 to reductive and reassuringly simple cliches such as "Islamic evil" and poverty, a fact many of our rulers should bear in mind.

Whilst a description of Islam (as opposed to a minority of its adherents) as evil is wholly understandable in the febrile and retributive atmosphere post 9/11, it's not going to get us anywhere in solving the biggest geopolitical challenge since the end of the Cold War.

Now that you've set out your stall, why not devote your energies to prescribing ways in which the challenges facing us can be addressed. Short of invading Arab countries and brainwashing their citizens, how exactly do we get Muslims to "emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion".

Or do we just hunker down and hope that, in a generation, Islamists will realise the error of their ways, regimes will begin to totter (as seems to be happening in Iran) and peace will break out.

Something more urgent needs to be done before more aeroplanes are highjacked and before more people get murdered.

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