MJ -- The Line Blurs - Why Iraqi's Fight

In much of the Islamic world, the past decade has been marked by growing tensions between moderate, liberal, and radical political movements. Fawaz Gerges argues that the war in Iraq has "blurred the lines" between those movements. The Bush administration's single-minded pursuit of war, Gerges warns, has "alienated many of the important moderate voices, both secular and religious, which until now had been unwilling to join militant anti-American forces."

"Bin Laden must be laughing in either his grave or cave. His strategic goal was to mobilise Muslims worldwide to heed his call for jihad. But his apocalyptic nightmare initially fell on deaf ears. Then, leading Muslim clerics cautioned young men not to be swayed by the calls for jihad from fringe groups such as al-Qaeda and said that only legitimate institutions and accredited scholars should be heeded.

Yet what was unthinkable 18 months ago has happened. The US has alienated those in the Islamic community who were its best hope. The challenge now is to limit the damage."