An unusual ally

It took guts for President Pervez Musharraf to order a crackdown on radical Islamic extremism in Pakistan. His Jan. 12 speech came as an almost unique event in the Muslim world. It validated the Bush administration’s decision to rely on Pakistan as a key member of the coalition against terrorism.

The odds seemed at first to weigh against that choice of partners. Pakistan had helped put the Taliban in place in Afghanistan. The powerful and secretive Pakistan intelligence service had been working hand in glove with the Taliban and its protection of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network. Muslim extremism had taken root in Pakistan as a popular movement.

And Gen. Musharraf had taken the presidency in a military coup. He enjoyed no electoral mandate. He seemed in the immediate wake of Sept. 11 to be following the model of Saudi Arabia’s ruling family, condemning the terrorist violence but permitting the extremist movement to go right ahead in promoting and financing the terrorist conspiracy.

Pakistan’s performance has been mixed. It cooperated as a staging area for the campaign in Afghanistan but withheld permission to use its bases for the bombing attacks. President Musharraf got rid of the pro-Taliban head of the intelligence service, but sympathizers nonetheless helped many Taliban fighters escape across into Pakistan in the closing phase of the fighting in Afghanistan.

The outbreak of fresh violence over the disputed territory of Kashmir seems to have been a catalyst. Pakistan-based terrorist groups sponsored a bloody attack on the Indian Parliament and brought India and Pakistan close to war. President Musharraf made a decisive choice. “The day of reckoning has come,” he said in a televised address. “Do we want Pakistan to become

a theocratic state, or do we want Pakistan

to emerge as a dynamic Islamic state: The verdict of the masses is in favor of a progressive Islamic state.” He not only outlawed the radical groups that had been terrorizing India, but also announced a new national policy. As a fundamental first step along the new path, President Musharraf promised to reform the Islamic schools that had trained a generation to hate America and Israel, to study only the Koran while neglecting any training in science, mathematics and objective history of the rest of the world.

Reforming education will be only the beginning. A new national policy will require also more democratic rule and economic development. And Pakistan must not stand alone as a moderate, progressive Islamic nation. Islamic extremism is still on the march in much of the region. The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, on a recent tour of the areas, found near unanimous belief in crazy myths like the story that 4,000 Jewish employees at the World Trade Center were warned to stay home on Sept. 11 and that only the American CIA could have carried out the attacks. Mr. Friedman found that most officials, businessmen and scholars whom he met actually hoped that Osama bin Laden would continue to escape the coalition’s dragnet. They have a sneaking admiration for this man who stood up to the powerful United States.

If moderation is to prevail, other moderate Muslim leaders must join President Musharraf in his courageous change of course. They must not only condemn terrorism but also begin uprooting its supporting extremist education system. And, in a move for which even President Musharraf may not yet be ready, they must move toward an end to the escalating violence in the Middle East by openly acknowledging Israel’s right to exist.