The extremism is not without it's educated leadership. A leadership responsible for the dialogue as it exists today.
I believe they would like to change the dialogue and find greater political success than they are now realizing. I would hate to think The West relishes their failure only to return to their prior status and failures.
There is a sincere opportunity in Egypt to change the dialogue with the Muslim extremism in the Middle East. There are respected leaders in Egypt on both sides of the issue.There are parties in Egypt that need to resolve the extremism and bring the people together. Dare I say, this meeting of the minds is as important as resolving the Israel - Palestine issue.
I might point out the jihadi-Salafi had not come to a political resolve until the election of Mohamed Morsi. I think we have their attention now.
It was the radicalized Salafis that attacked the Benghazi consulate. It is the factionalization that provides insight to the willingness to be lead. The dialogue can be changed.
The tragic assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi (click here) was the latest in a series of attacks by the country’s increasingly active Salafis. In late August, armed Salafi groups demolished Sufi shrines, mosques, and mausoleums in Tripoli, Misrata, and Zliten. Earlier this year, Salafis desecrated British World War II graves, attacked the Tunisian consulate over an art exhibit in Tunis they deemed offensive, bombed the offices of the International Red Cross, and detonated an improvised explosive device at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. But such attacks are hardly proof of Salafism’s growing influence over the country. Rather, they are symptoms of an intense re-composition and fractionalization of the movement, between quietist, “politico,” and militant strands. More importantly, they reveal the Salafis’ anguished search for relevance in a country that is already socially conservative, but that has soundly rejected dogmatic political actors in favor of technocratic ones.
