Secretary Wolfowitz makes the case for encouraging voices of moderation throughout the world. The editors at Democracy Egypt hope that moderate voices within the Pentagon, Congress, and the Bush administration are heeded in the coming weeks and months.

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.... "But we also must fight the much larger war that was exposed last September, and this is a war, too, that we must win. This larger struggle is part of another dimension of the war, a dimension that President Bush addressed in his State of the Union message, but one that, in my view, does not get emphasized enough. That larger war we face is a war of ideas -- a struggle over modernity and secularism, pluralism and democracy and real economic development.

In his State of the Union message, President Bush declared that in this fight, America will lead, he said, by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. We have a greater objective, the president said, than eliminating threats and containing resentments. We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror.

Part of building that just and peaceful world that the president envisions lies in the next steps that we must take in that larger struggle. For what we have before us is less a clash of civilizations, as some have theorized, than a collision of misunderstanding between the Muslim and Western worlds.

I acknowledge that my view on the subject of East and West, one that has been shaped by more than two decades of personal experience, is decidedly optimistic. But that does not mean that I can't see a truth that we must confront today. So let me be clear: There is a dangerous gap between the West and the Muslim world, and we must work to bridge that gap, and we must begin to do so now.

Part of bridging that gap is helping to expose what lies at the heart of the terrorists' methods and convincing their potential followers that theirs is a blind alley leading to defeat and ignominy. Part of exposing that blind alley, though, is to offer a better alternative. The alternatives of liberty and justice, as President Bush has said, fundamental pillars of a just and peaceful world.



But finally, while we wage the war on terror, we must also be mindful about larger war -- the struggle against enemies of tolerance and freedom the world over. One tool we have in this struggle is our ability to reach out beyond governments to people and to individuals. We must appeal to broad populations, especially those voices struggling to rise above the din of extremism, voices that tell us the Islam of Mohammed is not the religions of bin Laden and his suicide bombers.

I am convinced that the vast majority of the world's Muslims have no use for the extreme doctrines espoused by groups such as Al Qaida and the Taliban.

Very much to the contrary: They abhor terrorism. They abhor terrorists, who have not only hijacked airplanes, but have hijacked one of the world's great religions. They have absolutely no use for people who deny fundamental rights to half their population or who indoctrinate children with superstition and hatred.

In winning this larger struggle, it would be a mistake to think that we are the ones to lead the way. But we must do what we can to encourage moderate Muslim voices. This is a debate about Muslim values that must take place among Muslims, but it makes a difference when we recognize and encourage those who are defending universal values. And when we give them moral support against the opposition they encounter, we are indeed helping to strengthen the foundations of peace.

When Egypt sentenced human rights campaigner Saad Eddin Ibrahim to seven years in prison for his efforts to promote democracy, President Bush expressed concerns about Dr. Ibrahim's case directly to President Mubarak. As you know, we also recently turned down requests for additional aid beyond the Camp David accords because of that issue. And the State Department will continue to press our concerns with Egyptian authorities."



"In his State of the Union message, President Bush spoke powerfully of the brave men and women who raise their voices to advocate the values of human dignity, free speech, equal justice, respect for women and religious tolerance. They are out there, as we have seen. The system will progress only when we all become truly serious about supporting and encouraging those voices, abroad and here at home.

I have spent a good deal of my career, more than two decades, thinking about East and West, and my experience have convinced me that we share fundamental common ground. It is on that ground that we can build the ancient dream of peace and freedom, prosperity and security, a dream that we share. On this ground, we can build a better world, one that proceeds on a path from crisis to opportunity.

And a year after the horrific attacks on America, we can affirm this truth: The single greatest threat to peace and freedom in our time comes from terrorism. So this truth we should also affirm: that the future does not belong to the terrorists, the future belongs to those, no matter what their creed, who dream the oldest and noblest dream of all, the dream of peace and freedom. The future belongs to those who labor with courage and commitment to build a better, peaceful and tolerant world.

Thank you." (...)