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>To Charles;
>When you speak about 'Muslim World' then this includes Turkey, Indonesia, Nort Africa, Gulf countries, ex-Soviet Muslim republics etc.
>
>Go Walk streets of Dubai or Istanbul (or even Teheran!) and tell me do these
>people look to you as someone who is just about to blow themselves up ?

Do the ex-Soviet Muslim republics include Chechnya? As to Indonesia, the Laskar Islam is a definite threat to the indigenous Indonesian form of Islam. Morocco and Algeria have had a great deal of difficulty with extremists who feel God compels them to kill. And money from the Gulf States has paid for a lot of plastique.

As you may know, I have spent more than a little time walking the streets of Istanbul <s> I do understand the diversity in the Muslim world. I also understand there is great concern in Turkey for the influx of salafist money that is trying to subvert the secular Turkish Republic.

The problem is a current *within* the Islamic world, certainly not Islam or the Islamic world itself. And it is the Islamic world that has the most to lose.

IMO, Turkey is the model for the modern state with an Islamic majority population. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are working very hard to destroy the progress Turkey has made in integrating a great Islamic culture with the rest of the world.

Suicide bombers are *not at all* in keeping with the teachings of Islam, but they are encouraged and romaticised by the variations (in my opinion heresies) that are represented by the Millenialist ravings of the Shi'ite extremists in Iran and the Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia.

And to the salafist, any area that is not under Sha'ria is "occupied territory". That is exactly the point. Any kind of extremist thinking - especially the kind that has God whispering in your ear telling you whatever you do is justified - can lead to attrocity. I am sure in this we can agree <s>