Except in those countries with little economic and political freedom, most Islamic nations are becoming more modern, and less radicalized. This is a natural consequence of capitalism (which incentivizes property rights and peace) and prosperity which flows from capitalism, which reduces population growth and increases education. Although people see everything in a post-9/11 context, Iran of 30 years ago was much more radical than today, likewise Pakistan of 50 years ago was much more radical than today. The incremental change, I believe, isn't observed because people just didn't pay a lot of attention to these places pre-9/11, and so there is no context on where their social development is at.
Thats just not true. Iran was FAR more liberal in the 70s before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. There is a mosconception that IRanians want to Westernised. This is completely false. There is tiny minority in the universities that are somewhat liberal. But the silent majority support the clerics and are very conservative and religious.
Lebanon is becoming more extreme all the time. Before the civil war it was like the West, Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East. Slowly the fundamentalists are taken over. The Christians have left, the moderate Sunnis are leaving. The religious have way more children, so naturally they are taking over.
Same with Turkey. The rural conversatives are having more children and pulling the country back to religious conversatism.
Afghanistan in the 70s was far more liberal then since. There were universities, Westerners travelled freely, hijabs were nowhere in site in the cities. The war changed all that (against the Russians).
In Pakistan the more moderate Sufis are turning more and more to fundamentalist Deobandi/Salafi teachings (Pakistani army brought this on themselves with the support of the madrassas, to build a religious army against the Russians and Indians).
30 years ago in Bosnia or Kosovo you'd never have seen a covered up woman. Now Bosnia has the Bin Laden mosque!
In Egypt the ruling regime is only holding on due to extreme oppression, but their opposition is the Muslim Brotherhood, thats who the people support -
the Islamists. They certainly dont support the pro-Western forces.
In Central Asia, countries that used to be secular under Soviet rule are slowly turning back towards Islamism.
I can keep going. The assertion that Muslims in Islamic countries are growing more liberal and pro-Western is just flat out false. There are exceptions, but thats all they are. Islam is confident, assertive and seeks to control every aspect of a person's life, like in a cult. Its a hard yolk to break. Limp-wristed, relativistic, self-doubting Westerners liberalism is no match for it, they see it as an abomination.
As I said above and someone repeated after me, until Islam goes through its Reformation there is no hope, as it cannot change, evolve, break out of the cultish fundamentalist mold. Pressure must be applied until this happens. The mirror must be placed squarely in their face. Mock, criticise, tear apart, argue, rationalise. As long as Muhamed is held to be perfect and the Koran is held as the exact word of God by 99% of Muslims there is no hope. Because Muhamed said to "spread Islam by the sword until the flag of Islam flies over the whole world" and in the Koran the so called War Verses supercede the earlier Peace verses and the War Verses call Muslims to WAR. "slay them wherever you find them", "behind every bush and stone", "separate the head from the body" etc
