ex-CIA agent Emile Nakhleh speaks out on political Islam

While I'm undecided about continuing blogging as a regular activity, I do run across interesting things I feel like sharing, and this blog is as good a place to share them (with whomever still visits here) as anywhere else.

For the moment, I'll note the following from an interview with Emile Nakhleh (with that name, I'm quite sure he's Christian, possibly Copt -please correct me) who's been head of the CIA's Political Islam wing for the last 15 years (since 1991 that would make it, through the end of Bush 41s presidency and through Clinton and Bush 43), and he definitely doesn't share Daniel Pipe's views...

Please read this interview (in full at the Harper's magazine link below) but this question posed to him was worth quoting in full:
Harper's Magazine, often interesting reading there
http://harpers.org/sb-six-questions-emile-nakhleh-1158706094.html

6. Is there an inherent threat to Western democracies from the Islamic world?

No, there's only a threat from those who use Islam for ideological reasons and who are willing to employ violence. There are 1.4 billion people in the Islamic world and only a tiny minority, maybe 2 or 3 percent, are politically active. Just like Jews and Christians, most have kids to raise and bills to pay. Most view Islam as a personal and societal force, not a political one, and only a tiny minority becomes terrorists. There are hundreds of political parties in the Muslim world, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Yemen, Pakistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Those parties and their supporters have participated in many elections, and some times they have won and some times they have lost, but they have largely recognized the results. Not all are necessarily interested in creating Sharia societies. Even Hamas highlighted its opposition to Israel and service to society, not religious issues. Political Islam is not a threat—the threat is if people become disenchanted with the political process and democracy, and opt for violence. There is a real danger from a few terrorists and we should go after them, but the longer-term threat is that people opt out of the system. We need to not only speak out in favor of democracy and political reform, but also act on that as well.