Both Graham E Fuller and the magazine that recently published his article on political Islam, Foreign Affairs , are certainly not entities that Muslims can warm up to upon immediate acquaintance. The reason is not difficult to understand.

Fuller who visited Malaysia last year and spoke in an academic seminar in Universiti Malaya, is a former vice-chairperson of the National Intelligence Council at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Foreign Affairs is a popular periodical for US decision-makers on foreign and defence policies, strategic planning and national as well as international security.

At first glance, Fuller and Foreign Affairs may conjure up an image of 'American arrogance', 'conspiracies' and 'neo-imperialism'.

Yet, for Muslims who are intellectually brave enough to read, with an open heart and mind, what Fuller had to say about political Islam in the March/April 2002 edition of Foreign Affairs , they would be pleasantly rewarded.

It has plenty of food for thought for Muslims as well as non-Muslims who cherish peace, justice, democracy, human rights and democracy for all. It is also an antidote for bigotry, both Islamic or non-Islamic.

In an article simply but relevantly titled "The future of political Islam" Graham argues that his Christian and secular compatriots in the United States, especially top decision-makers, should empathise and understand more fully the plights, grievances and above all, political diversity in the Islamic world.

The Christian democrats example

After the military victory in Afghanistan last year, Graham suggests, "The United States will have to move beyond the war's first phase, which has punished those directly responsible for the attacks, and address the deeper sources of political violence and terror in the Muslim world today." (p 48)

There are, observes Graham, many types of Islamists, like "radical or moderate, political or apolitical, violent or quietist, traditional or modernist, democratic or authoritarian", who cannot be lumped together as one single static category. (p 49)

Indeed, Graham's understanding of the realities in the Islamic world and its politics seems to surpass that of many non-Muslims who live together with Muslims as neighbours, colleagues and friends in Malaysia and Singapore, but whose Islamophobia increasingly borders on paranoia and neurosis after the terrorist attacks in the United States last year.

Graham's observations and analysis are therefore a welcome antidote.

For example, Graham is of the opinion that liberal democracy and human rights could, given time, patience, the right direction and leadership, evolve out of Islamic politics and discourses, just as Christian polities produced the Magna Carta in Britain, the Declaration of Independence in the United States, and the message of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" in France.

"Americans brought up to venerate the separation of church and state may wonder whether a movement with an explicit religious vision can ever create a democratic, tolerant, and pluralistic polity. But if Christian Democrats can do it, there is no reason in principle why Islamists cannot." (p 52)

Graham adds: "Non-Muslims should understand that democratic values are latent in Islamic thought if one wants to look for them, and that it would be more natural and organic for the Muslim world to derive contemporary liberal practices from its own sources than to import them wholesale from foreign cultures. The key question is whether it will actually do so." ( ibid )

However, he also notes that:

"The liberal evolution of political Islam faces some formidable obstacles. The first comes from the local scene, where Islamists are routinely suppressed, jailed, tortured, and executed." ( ibid )

Holding out for heroes

Graham certainly does not condone or support Osama bin Laden and his cohorts. Neither does he believe that the majority of Muslims in the world were delighted in seeing the terrorists blowing up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept 11, 2001.

However, Graham does observe that there are many plights and grievances in the Islamic world, such as political oppression inflicted unto the masses by US-backed 'Islamic' autocrats or autocratic regimes, poverty and lack of education that lead Muslims "to cheer on the Saddam Husseins and bin Ladens of the world." (p 56)

Graham adds: "One of the saddest commentaries today, in fact, is the Muslim thirst for heroes who will stand up and defy the dominant US-led order" ( ibid )

According to Graham, the "US-led order" includes, among others, "US support for authoritarianism in the Muslim world in the name of stability or material interests such as ensuring the flow of oil, routine US backing of Israeli policies, and Washington's failure to press for democratic political processes out of fear that they might bring Islamist groups to power." (p 53)

PAS criticised too

While Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has unilaterally and personally proclaimed the country to be an 'Islamic state' and his leadership a 'good dictatorship', has reason to feel uneasy or uncomfortable if he reads Graham's essay, PAS' deputy president and Terengganu Menteri Besar Abdul Hadi Awang should not be rubbing his hands in glee either, so to speak, just because his rival is being 'criticised'.

For Graham also opines that "Islamists, too, deserve criticism for playing opportunistic political game Where they exist legally, they often adopt radical postures on Islamic issues to embarrass the government. The major Islamist PAS movement in Malaysia, for example which now governs two of the country's ten states [ sic ] has called for full implementation of the Shari'a and application of traditional Muslim punishment (including amputations and stoning), in part to show up the poor Islamic credentials of the central government." (p 53)

Graham's essay on the future of political Islam may not go down well with the US defence establishment or those whom former president Dwight D Eisenhower termed as possessing the "military-industrial complex", and 'Islamic' autocrats and dictators in the Muslim world as well as Islamic traditionalists and opportunists.

However, his insights and perspectives should be treasured by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, especially Americans and Malaysians who cherish peace, justice, democracy, human rights and human dignity for all.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.