[The Great Satan]

I know many of you are pessimistic about it but I foresee the end of Islam at sight. I am not concerned of the ignorant mass of Muslims. The intellectuals of Islam are turning against it and it is the intellectuals that chart the course of the history not the ignorant mass. A billion ignorant Muslims can do nothing to stop the momentum that a few of their enlightened intellectuals who have turned against Islam can generate. They eventually will have to give in and follow their intellectuals or they will be annihilated under the pressure of poverty like Afghanistan and Iran.

I agree with this diagnosis. 9-11 will be the catalyst for the ascendancy of the reformers, just as it has already catalyzed the barring of the doors in Europe. Bottom line: you don't tug Superman's cape and live.

[schu]

The “reformers” need to be very brave, because the people in charge (Muslim clerics, Islamists) are not going to like this too much.

I hope I am wrong, but IMHO Islam itself precludes the introspection and critical thinking required for it to reform. Furthermore the exchange of ideas, freely expressed, is not something you see much of from Muslim countries. To be successful, change must come from within Islam; this change cannot be forced upon it from outside. For the above reasons Islam cannot change, therefore it is stuck in an endless cycle of failure and despair.

I repeat, I hope I am wrong, because the picture is not very pretty.