RAND report: Cold War experience can strengthen moderate Muslims

By drawing from the Cold War experience of uniting democratic people against Soviet communism, the world can help moderate Muslims unite against Islamist extremists. That's the thesis of a new RAND Corporation report titled Building Moderate Muslim Networks.

“The struggle in much of the Muslim world today is a war of ideas,” said the report's lead author, Angel Rabasa, a RAND senior policy analyst. “This is not a war of civilizations; it’s not Islam versus the West. It’s a struggle within Islam to define the character of Islam.”

“We cannot come in as outsiders, as a non-Muslim country, and discredit the radicals’ ideology,” Rabasa said. “Muslims have to do that themselves. What we can do is level the playing field by empowering the moderates.” This empowerment should come not as an afterthought, but as a basic element of US strategy.  Click here to order or download the report.