The strength of such parties is that they embody a clear set of traditional values around which a wide spectrum of the population can unify – perhaps even especially at a time of crisis.

It strikes me that in countries where Islam is and has been the main religion for hundreds of years, a moderate, traditional Islamic political movement could actually counter the extremists, by giving devout Muslims somewhere else to go.

The impulse to give political expression to one’s religious convictions seems quite a natural one to me. Religion plays some political role in most of the countries I’ve known.

Clearly there is a crisis in Islam in many parts of the world, and a crisis in the relationship between Islam and the non-Islamic world.

But I’m not convinced that the only possible political expression of Islam is Islamic fundamentalism, and I don’t think the solution is to exclude every Muslim who seeks, as the US president himself does, to place their religion in a political context.

I think you’ve really found something here. In fact, I think you ought to write a letter to President Bush and let him know that we are supporting Islamist organizations, and maybe include a list of them, I’m sure he would really appreciate it!! Not only that, I’m sure he’ll be really shocked, since after all the whole foundation of his presidency is that thing called “the war on terrorism” (maybe you’ve heard of it) that devotes billions of dollars to fighting islamist organizations…

You’ve said it yourself. Uzbeks aren’t all that interested in building an Islamic state, and I think there’s an incredibly high burden of proof for those who want to seriously claim that a weeklong protest involving thousands of people was motivated by Islamist sentiment. Rather, the Andijon protest is part and parcel of the protests across the country that have gone on since November and the previous ones in Andijon that have been motivated by the government shutdown of large employers and bazaars. The Uzbek government can’t get a pass on putting down all dissent and resisting the need to reform its economy even if it does face a legitimate (but, come on, diminishing) security threat. We can’t allow them to play the Chinese trick of saying anyone who wants something different and happens to be Muslim is a violent terrorist bent on overthrowing the state.

I personally don’t think we should be supporting any parties. (I’m lucky though. We don’t.) We should be as viewpoint neutral as possible and resist giving anything but rhetorical and technical support to those who want democracy and economic reform. If they happen to be Muslim or think that Islam has a role in Uzbekistan, so be it so long as they don’t want to build an Islamic state.

Laurence, really, you don’t think that the between 500 and 1,000 people that were cut down were Islamists that Karimov was bravely defending the country against, do you or that we’re providing deliberate, direct support to Islamist organizations trying to overthrow the state? If so, you’ve got one hell of a mountain of evidence that I’d like to see.