America's New Civilizing Mission by M. SHAHID ALAM

The American response to 9-11--including the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the planting of military bases all over the Islamicate world, and plans for attacking Iran--provides fuel to the campaign by al-Qaida and its affiliates to energize the Islamicate world to recapture its historical autonomy. The American and Israeli designs on the Islamicate world--so it appears to a growing number of Muslims--are even greater than they were before 9-11, when they preferred to dominate the Islamicate world through surrogates. Their new designs go further: they are now demanding that the Islamicate world--and Islam itself--reform itself on American terms.