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Islam, Terror, and the Second Nuclear Age

[New York Times Magazine] Noah Feldman - When the Arab League's secretary general, Amr Moussa, called for "a Middle East free of nuclear weapons" this past May, he was worried about Iran, whose self-declared ambition to become a nuclear power has been steadily approaching realization. A nuclear Iran could potentially mean a historic shift in the position of the long-subordinated Shiite minority relative to the power and prestige of the Sunni majority, which traditionally dominated the Muslim world. The marriage of Islamism and anti-Americanism will probably be considered by history as the most significant consequence of the Iranian revolution. The U.S. therefore has strong reason to block its enemy Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons - not simply because Iran will seek to become a greater regional power, but because the Islamic Republic of Iran as currently constituted is definitionally anti-American. A nuclear Iran will be a stronger and more effective enemy in pursuing anti-American policies under the banner of Islam. If and when Iran does have the bomb, its enhanced power and prestige will certainly be lent to policies that it conceives as promoting the Islamic interest. The writer is a law professor at New York University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2006-10-30 01:00:00
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