Turmoil in the Muslim World

SPECIAL REPORT Turmoil in the Muslim World September 11--and the prospect of U.S. reprisals--widen the fault lines across many Islamic nations Across most of America, life is starting to return to normal as the nation absorbs the shock of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and mourns the victims. Not so in the Islamic world. The aftershocks of the disaster--and the certainty of U.S. military retaliation--are aggravating dangerous social, political, …

…young adherents. And although Saudi Arabia and Kuwait still sit on vast oil wealth and host thousands of U.S. troops, geriatric governments that have failed to set up political successions are producing widespread resentment. All of this makes it imperative that any U.S. military strike cause minimal casualties to civilians. As it is, dealing with the fallout of war in the Muslim world will emerge as one of Washington's biggest foreign policy challenges.