Letters.

God and Mammon:

Daniel Pipes rightly argues that militant Islam often surges in countries experiencing rapid economic growth ("God and Mammon", Winter 2001/02). Nowhere is this phenomenon more pronounced and conspicuous than in India's Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Militant Islam appeared on Kashmir's radar screen in 1989. Prior to this, Kashmir was quiet and peaceful. It even thwarted Pakistan's unsuccessful attempt in 1965 to export radical Islam. But things began to change in the 1980s, and it is not difficult to see why. During 1977-78, 33.4 percent of the Kashmiri population lived below the poverty line. By 1983-84, it had declined to a mere 16.7 percent. The average monthly per capita income for 1986-87 was 3,348 Rupees ($95), while in 1971-72 it was only 588 Rupees ($17). By the late 1980s, Kashmir had become one of the richest states of the Indian Union.

It is ironic that in their changing historical identity -- from Hindus to Buddhists, back to Hindus and then to Muslims -- the people of Kashmir had never achieved a better standard of living or attained greater freedom than during the current period. Yet all these developments could not pre-empt the emergence of militant Islam in Kashmir, which has so far resulted in the deaths of nearly 20,000 people.

Economic prosperity alone, however, cannot precipitate the growth of militant Islam; it merely awakens the sleeping giant. A close study of Muslim traditions would suggest (as does Ram Swamp's Understanding Islam through Hadis [New Delhi: Voice of India Press, 1983]) that the root cause of Islamic militancy might lie not just in economics or politics, but also in the fundamentals of Islam.

RANDRIR SINGH BAINS

Essex, UK

What Victory Means:

Conrad Black's admirable overview of desirable goals for the United States ("What Victory Means", Winter 2001/02) suffers from the fault expressed in the Shakespearean conversation between Hotspuru and Owen Glendower (Henry IV, Act III, Scene 1). Glendower: "I can call spirits from the vasty deep!" Hotspur: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?"

There are certain facts that affect the coming of Lord Black's spirits. The most important is that the United States is, and has been since World War II, not just a member of the community of European nations, but its center of gravity -- without whom no significant transnational enterprise can succeed or arguably even take place, either on the continent of Europe or in areas where vital European interests are involved. This has been borne out by a number of events which are recent and familiar enough not to list again here.

Unfortunately, there are elements on the continent -- especially in France -- that bitterly resent the American position, and continue to do what they can to sabotage and diminish American influence on the continent and restrict the scope of U.S. action elsewhere, both in the UN and through other channels. Not the least of these efforts is the attempt to set up the European Community as a competitor to the United States, not just in economic terms (with the pathetically rickety euro at its center), but in order to limit or block the

necessary exercise of American...