Liberal Islam?

Thoms Friedman is one of the more reasonable Iraq hawks. His position has been that we should have liberated Iraq in order to change the dynamic of the Middle East by creating a solid successful capitalist secular state. He broached this idea before the war in Iraq and was convincing.

His latest article discusses a recent visit to Iraq and a conversation he had with some young Iraqi clerics. He states, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea whether these are the only two liberal Shiite clerics in Iraq. People tell me they definitely are not. Either way, their willingness to express their ideas publicly is hugely important. It is, for my money, the most important reason we fought this war: If the West is going to avoid a war of armies with Islam, there has to be a war of ideas within Islam. The progressives have to take on both the religious totalitarians, like Osama bin Laden, and the secular totalitarians who exploit Islam as a cover, like Saddam Hussein. We cannot defeat their extremists, only they can. This war of ideas needs two things: a secure space for people to tell the truth and people with the courage to tell it. That's what these two young clerics represent, at least in potential."

This seems like a fair assessment to me. This isn't the threat that Conservatives usually level at moderate Muslims (i.e. eliminate Muslim Terrorism or face genocide), but a simple statement of the historical forces.