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Building a Better World: One Path from Crisis to Opportunity

(U.S. Dept. of Defense) Paul Wolfowitz - Remarks of the Deputy Secretary of Defense at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., September 5, 2002 The terrorists seek to target not just America but Muslims and Islam, by attacking the ideals of tolerance, justice, and openness that are the aspirations of millions of Muslims around the world. Turkey offers an important model to the Muslim world. As Bernard Lewis has observed, Turkey's experience shows the entire Muslim world that democracy is difficult but also that it is possible. In Indonesia, a country that has the largest Muslim population of any in the world, the national legislature overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to have Islamic law, or Shari'a, be recognized in that nation's national law. Islam is not the state religion, and Indonesia accords equal status to the five major religions of its people. The vast majority of the world's Muslims have no use for the extreme doctrines espoused by groups such as al Qaeda and the Taliban. They abhor terrorism; they abhor terrorists who have not only hijacked airplanes, but have hijacked one of the world's great religions. We must do what we can to encourage moderate Muslim voices. This is a debate about Muslim values that must take place among Muslims. But it makes a difference when we recognize and encourage those who are defending universal values.
2002-09-11 00:00:00
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