I thought it fairly clear that the reason there’s dissension within the ranks of the Islamists is the perception that they’re losing militarily, which it seems to me is a good thing to cultivate. Also, although hightoned hermeneutic interpretations of their scripture as less harsh reminds us of a similar effort within Christianity, the crux of the matter in Islam has to do with sovereignty rather than the black letter of jurisprudence. The fact is that issues of sovereignty are not resolved, and there’s considerable dissent about who has the authority to act, if not about the harshness of the rules themselves. Again, it seems to me that if we wish to win in a way that establishes some sort of civic space for liberalism within the Ummah the way to go about it is to deal with the sectarianism in such a way that it paralyzes the authority to act.
While this is a slightly nuanced approach, it seems clear not only that it’s working, but that it’s the only thing that can work.
