Only the most cockeyed optimists believe that there is any hope for liberal democracy in today’s Middle East. If one accepts the premise that a democratic overhaul of the Middle East’s Muslim countries is a pipe dream, then our best hope for the future is moderate as opposed to fundamen­talist Islam, whether Shia or Sunni.

In late January, the international press re­ported that 8000 Tunisians had marched against “Salafi violence” in their country. In addition, re­porting on Egypt and many other Muslim coun­tries has shown a preoccupation with the machi­nations of the Salafis.

It is a legitimate worry that any rise of Salaf­ist influence in Egypt, Jordan, or Lebanon will crowd out the more liberal and tolerant version of Islam to which the people of those countries are accustomed and under which they live. It is also fair to say that Salafi doctrine is very close that that of jihadist groups like al Qaeda – the main difference being that they do not advocate jihad now, but probably would in the future

Who are these people and what are they doing? Do they represent a threat to American interests in the Muslim world?

The Salafis are a minority, fundamentalist ele­ment of Sunni Islam. They believe that only they are the correct interpreters the Koran and that all non-Salafi, moderate Muslims are infidels and must therefore be converted to Salafism.

Salafism is often identified with Wahhabism. That is probably not entirely accurate. Suffice it to say that Wahhabism is an ultraconservative and intolerant sub-grouping within Salafism. In any event, from the point of view of stability in Islam and the hope that as time passes, moder­ate Muslims will assume an increasing leader­ship role in steering Islam toward modernity, both Wahhabism and Salafism represent future impediments to that goal.

Wahhabism is the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal family and its allies in Saudi society support Wahhabism spiritually, philosophically and, particularly, economically. With their gigantic oil wealth, that means an al­most bottomless pit of money for these radical extremists.

These Salafi/Wahhabi extrem­ists are very ac­tive in Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan. In fact, to one degree or another, they are heavily involved throughout the Middle East as well as in Central Asia, and even in Europe, the UK and North America.

That means that wherever they are in the world, their goal is to convert all “infidels,” start­ing with moderate Muslims, to their fundamen­talist beliefs. They do this through schools, pub­lications, news outlets and videos throughout the Middle East and any part of the world in which Muslims reside.

Preeminent among these mechanisms, driven by the active, well-funded and ambitious Saudi Arabian goal of religiously radicalizing Islam, are the Salafi/Wahhabi schools that exist throughout Islam. These schools appear to be the cutting edge for the spread of the fundamentalist Salafi/ Wahhabi doctrine throughout the region, focus­ing on the grassroots level of Islam.

Apparently there is a relent­less effort of the fundamentalist teachers to recruit Muslim youth, arguing in favor of what they see as “authentic Islam” while criti­cizing local religious practices.

Thus, both Salafism and Wahhabism are fo­cused on the conversion of primarily moder­ate Muslims to their fundamen­talist form of Islam. For that reason, one must ask what business it is of ours that there are elements within Islam that are bent on radicalizing that religion and then dominating it.

Moderate Muslims bring with them hope for liberalization and perhaps even democratization in Islam in the future. They are not committed to Jihad as are so many radical fundamentalist Muslims. Where no Muslim is enamored with America’s current military involvements in the Middle East, many moderates actually admire and would like to adopt much from many exist­ing forms of Western liberalism and governance.

By ceasing our military operations in the Mus­lim world, we will give moderate Muslims op­portunity. Such a move will not only inhibit the success of Salafi and Wahhabi proselytizing, it will give those moderates political strength and promise.

In doing just that, we have the opportunity to substantially strengthen that element in Islam that has the potential to make the kinds of ac­commodations that will be necessary if Islam and the West are to live together in some sort of peace on this planet.

At the same time, we will strike a real blow against those radical elements of Islam which are led by Wahhabism and Salafism, whose basic policies, if they are to rule, may well end in con­flict with the West.

Haviland Smith is a retired CIA station chief who served in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and as chief of the counterterror­ism staff. A longtime resident of Brookfield, he now lives in Williston. For earlier Ruminations see http://rural-ruminations.com.