Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has called for a two-pronged strategy of "enlightened moderation" to stem a rising tide of extremist violence, in a commentary published by The Washington Post.
Plastic explosives, hi-tech remote-controlled devices and the proliferation of sucide bombers, wrote Musharraf, "has created a lethal force that is all but impossible to counter.
"The unfortunate reality is that both the perpetrators of these crimes and most of the people who suffer from them are Muslims. This has caused many non-Muslims to believe wrongly that Islam is a religion of intolerance, militancy and terrorism," he said.
To "stop the carnage in the world and to stem the downward slide of the Muslims," Musharraf proposed a two-pronged strategy of "Enlightened Moderation" for both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds to follow.
"The first part is for the Muslim world to shun militancy and extremism and adopt the path of socioeconomic uplift.
"The second is for the West, and the United States in particular, to seek to resolve all political disputes with justice and to aid in the socioeconomic betterment of the deprived Muslim world."
Musharraf said "political injustice to a nation or a people, when combined with stark poverty and illiteracy, makes for an explosive mix... It is cannon fodder for terrorism."
He traced "the genesis of the Muslims being labled as extremists or terrorists" from the Palestinian dispute which led to "a unity of Muslims," to the Afghan war in the 1980s, "which saw the emergence and nurturing of pan-Islamic militancy."
After criticizing the world for allowing Muslim militancy to "fester for a decade" after the Cold War instead of defusing it, Musharraf moved on to more recent events, such as the gathering momentum of the Palestinian intifada "uniting and angering Muslims across the globe.
"And then came the bombshell of September 11, 2001, and the angry reaction of the United States against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
"All subsequent reactions of the United States -- its domestic responses against Muslims, its attitude toward Palestine and the operation in Iraq -- led to total polarization of the Muslim masses against the United States.
"It is not Islam as a religion that has created militancy and extremism but rather political disputes that have led to antagonism among the Muslim masses," said Musharraf.
He called on the West "to help resolve these political disputes with justice, as part of a commitment to a strategy of Enlightened Moderation."
He called on the Muslim world to reclaim the Islamic values of "justice, compassion, tolerance of others, generosity of spirit, austerity with a spirit of sacrifice, and a burning desire to make a better world."
"The time for renaissance has come," he added. "We must concentrate on human resource development through the alleviation of poverty and through education, health care and social justice.
"If this is our direction, it cannot be achieved through confrontation. We must adopt a path of moderation and a conciliatory approach to fight the common belief that Islam is a religion of militancy in conflict with modernization, democracy and secularism."
Musharraf suggested forming "a committee of luminaries" to recommend restructuring the Organization of Islamic Conferences "to meet the challenges of the 21st century, to fulfill the aspirations of the Muslim world and to take us toward emancipation."