Islam and Democratization in Asia By Shiping Hua

Sheikh argues that Islam is bound to remain a permanent, if contested, feature in the Malaysian political landscape for the foreseeable future. The presence of the Islamic discourse alone also bears no predictable correlation with either preference formation or policy choices. Above all, God remains transcendent in Malaysia.

The last two chapters focus on Central Asia. In chapter 9, “Taliban and Al Qaeda Suicide Bombers in Afghanistan: Tracing the Emergence of a Terror Tactic,” Brian Williams reports on his field research, completed in the spring of 2007, from when he was hired by a U.S. government agency to travel to Afghanistan and provide a firsthand account of the Taliban's much-touted spring offensive. In this mission, he was asked to focus on the mysterious rise of suicide bombing in the country. His job was to find out who the bombers were, where they were getting their inspiration, and what their overall strategy was.

The results of his intensive fieldwork—which took him from the dangerous Pashtun tribal areas along the Pakistani border through the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan to Herat on the Iranian border—were most unexpected and have changed the way we view the war in Afghanistan. Most importantly, they have pointed the finger at Iraq, and have shown that the uniquely vicious form of terrorism emanating from the Iraqi theater of operations has radicalized the Taliban insurgency. While the U.S. military is reluctant to admit that the Iraqi terrorism (which has included unprecedented use of beheadings and suicide bombings) has anything more than a demonstrative effect on Afghanistan, his research points to direct ties between Iraqi and Afghan insurgents. This is perhaps the first indicator of what scholars have long feared, the emergence of the “Iraq effect” in other parts of Islamic Eurasia. Through interviews with Afghan National Directorate of Security officials, Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan government, Northern Alliance warlords, off-record U.S. military, and Pashtun tribesmen he has collected considerable evidence of Taliban insurgents traveling to the Sunni triangle for terrorism training. Williams also uncovered irrefutable evidence of Iraqis and other Arabs coming from Iraq to Afghanistan to train their Taliban counterparts. Most