Letters to the Editor

The article, “Five Pillars of Democracy: How the West Can Promote an Islamic Reformation” (Spring 2004 RAND Review), is interesting. It seems the writer has done a thorough study of Muslim societies. At least she does not have a jaundiced view, as other writers of the West generally tend to have. She has aptly classified people into four categories, and I think this is a model through which any society could be described.

I think the traditionalists and modernists should be encouraged. The traditionalists may be responsible for stagnation in their societies, but they do no harm to others, whereas the modernists keep changing with time. We should not forget that they are all Muslims, and they will do their best to improve and modernize their societies, if the West will promote them.

But I have doubts that Western leaders will accept the suggestions made by the writer. The world community — read, the United States of America — promotes extremism, dictatorship, and corruption while preaching democracy, freedom, and all the good things the West is dedicated to in its society.

Why is there so much bad blood among brothers? You have answered my question: “The West needs to adhere consistently and faithfully to its core values of democracy, equality, individual freedom, and social responsibility.”

Mohammad Waqas
Associate Copy Editor, India Today
New Delhi, India

RAND Review is an excellent social science and public policy effort that merits wide attention from the media as well as decisionmakers. In this connection, your symposium in the Summer 2004 issue on the American legal system (“Trials and Tribulations: Expert Witnesses Chart the Future of American Civil Justice”) is pointed and very much on target.

Irving Louis Horowitz
Chairman of the Board and Editorial Director
Transaction Publishers
Rutgers — The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, New Jersey