At this futureofMuslimworld.com site one will find the Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World. There are many interesting articles to read there and it seems to be a particularly good source for information and discussion in regards to the Muslim Brotherhood as well as other Muslim/Islamist groups.
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1Dan on Apr 30, 2008 at 9:51 am:
Hmmm, it is funded by the Hudson Institute, a fairly conservative think tank with such people as Scooter Libby on the team. Hmmm. I just gotta say, this new site might be pretty good, but for someone like me, because there are ties to the Bush administration and their warring in the Middle East, I just can’t seem to trust what they have to say. Bush has really poisoned conservatism. Dang it, I can’t help but think their purpose is not to bring greater understanding to the problems facing the Middle East, but to continue propagating neo-conservative ideology.
2danithew on May 2, 2008 at 1:42 am:
Dan, you are so obsessed with the Iraq War and George Bush that you can’t seem to see or think about anything else.
If you read the articles posted at the site, you would see that many of them have worthwhile information to offer.
3Non-Arab Arab on May 13, 2008 at 8:44 pm:
Slightly softer strain of neocons. Title of the website itself is patronizing but designed to sound honestly inquisitive to the casual observer. It’s not. Hillel Fradkin, Husain Haqqani, Israel Elad-Altman. Not names that set off Daniel Pipes KKK-like warning bells, but names that should put defenses on. To raise a comparison: there are hard core anti-Mormons that scream at the top of their lungs outside temple square on conference weekend. We all know to quickly and completely dismiss what they’re saying. But then there’s the subtle nice anti-Mormons who go around trying to find members with weak testimonies, start raising doubts over admittedly real (but as members with strong testimonies we know answerable) issues, and then seek to slowly drag those people away. That’s what a group like the Hudson Institute is up to here. They’re like WINEP - “oh yeah, we’re all about the peace process and we’re real experts on the region”, but in reality they’re little more than far more savvy and well-connected Zionist hacks who destroyed the hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
For Pete’s sake, if you want to learn about the future of the Muslim world (that’s a bit of a broad topic encompassing a billion people and yet we grossly over-simplify in even referring to it as such), why not read and talk to the people Muslims are reading and talking with amongst themselves? There’s the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (http://www.ikhwanweb.com/) and lots of brotherhood bloggers. There’s Yousuf al-Qaradawi (http://www.qaradawi.net/) and Amr Khaled (http://www.amrkhaled.net/acategories/categories79.html). IslamOnline is a popular site at http://www.islamonline.net/english/index.shtml . Basically, how about listening in on what Muslims are saying amongst themselves about their own future instead of a bunch of Washington political hacks talking up what they wish were being said? Which is not to say no one on the outside has anything useful to add, but frankly those people are pretty easy to spot because they are generally directly involved with dialogues inside the Muslim world (of the kind that generally doesn’t make headlines and thinktank websites but does make headlines in Arabic and Farsi, etc.)
Consider the sources.
4danithew on May 15, 2008 at 4:58 am:
Non-Arab Arab - Thanks for stopping in and for the links you provided.
For the record, I don’t have gripes against all neo-cons - as some do - I was never opposed to the Iraq war and was thrilled to see Saddam deposed. I’m still concerned about the fact that so many authoritarian republics and monarchies are running full swing in the same neighborhood. These regimes are at the root of most of the regional problems. The Islamists are also very responsible as well.
I’m very aware of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, etc.
There have been some criticisms that the English Ikhwan site and the Arabic Ikhwan site are a little different in what they have to say about things. Qaradawi is viewed by many as a ‘moderate’ but he’s a pretty slippery character, in my opinion. Just watch out for the Islamist good-cop/bad-cop routine that sometimes goes on … the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is fairly fixed (and in my opinion, negative - I am NOT looking forward to sharia government anywhere) but the MB is pragmatic in its politics and methodology.