Radical Islam will not become 'governing ideology'.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Washington Pulse

Islamic extremism does not pose the same danger to the Western World the communist and fascist ideologies of the 20th century did, according to Michael Mandelbaum, a New York Times best-selling author.

"This ideology does not have the global appeal as the great ideological opponents of liberalism," Mandelbaum said at an Office of Naval Research conference. "These ideas have no chance of taking over the power of the country, which is the necessary condition for opposing liberalism in a serious way. These ideas, such as they are, already have been tried and failed," namely in Afghanistan and Iran, he said.

Radical Muslim ideas, he said, are doing better in some parts of the Arab world than in others. "In the religious hearts of the Islamic world, or Arab world, there are no democracies, and there are no market economies," he said. In those countries, the conflict is not with America or the Western world, but between the moderates--"those who want Islam to be a thriving religion compatible with the modern world"--and the extremists, said Mandelbaum.

"The extremists are noisy, and they clearly have sympathizers, but even that has led us to think that there is almost no country that has radical Islam as...