The plan of the Bush administration to install democratic, secular, pro-American regimes in the Middle East is fast unraveling. It is a classic example of “blowback,” where your actions ensure the opposite of what you intended. There is the insurgency in Iraq and the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In democratic elections, Islamic fundamentalist parties increased their representation in the legislatures of Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Pakistan, while Palestinians and Turks voted for such parties to lead their governments. Iranians rejected a moderate, electing hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their president. There is rising anti-Americanism throughout the Islamic world even in such secular states as Indonesia, Tunisia and Turkey. The former Soviet republics of Central Asia, whose independence from Moscow the U.S. encouraged because of their strategic location and petroleum reserves, are suspicious of Washington and have turned to Russia for support. And Israel, despite U.S. military and diplomatic assistance, failed to defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/01/2146244

The fundamental issue with changing the way people vote is education. When people are constantly told they are not smart enough to figure things out for themselves and told to "vote" certain ways or to do certain actions (as extreme islam religious leaders do) there can never be a free and democratic system.

The only solution is to allow people to learn to read and think for themselves. Most sincere educated people simply do not choose to follow a violent path. Most educated (but not all) people simply want to take care of themselves and their families in a manner of their choosing.

In my time in Iraq, the safest and most prosperous neighborhoods were those that had freedom to think for themselves and make decisons that were not directly mandated from the local Imam.

This is the key difference in a free society and a society based on religious madates. The Taliban resurgence is only due to violence, intimidation, and "group think". What is wrong with teaching a person how to think and letting him or her make their own decisions? If the Koran is right, then let people read it for themselves - if it is true then let it stand on it's own truths. I sumbit this terrifies islamic extremist leaders worldwide - an educated person will more often than not - NOT choose to blow themsleves up; an free, safe, educated person will more likely NOT choose to give 50% (or more) of their income to some radical voice box blaming all their problems on someone else. History is replete with examples of leaders scapegoating problems - and all of them eventually failed.

I submit there is reason why the reading rate of people in countries governed with a version of Islam tending towards absolute control are so low. One simply has to google the illiteracy rates for the islamic world and a clear picture develops. Fundamental religious (of any religion) countries with the highest literacy rates are more free than those with low rates. The economic picture mirrors this rate. The United States had a similiar experience in it's early years with the "communal" approach initialy tried at Jamestown. Freedom breeds safe, secure, and prosperous peoples every time.