As the world starts a new year, some analysts say the war for Muslim minds, is being lost not only by America but by Al Qaeda too. They say Muslims in Southeast Asia are spurning the approach of the radical group which has also failed to win widespread backing in the Middle East. But some analysts also warn that events in Iraq will determine if people in the Middle East, later rallies to the radicals. 2004 saw hundreds dead in attacks from Jakarta to Madrid. But whether they were done by Al Qaeda or by copycats, some say the radicals, like American conservatives, are losing support. "The war for Muslim minds is lost both by neocons and by Al Qaeda. Because America under President Bush during his first term was unable to capitalise on the victory in Iraq. It was unable to implant democracy after the fall of Saddam Hussein. On the other hand the jihadists have been unable sort of to topple the regimes that they disliked in the Muslim world and to have Muslim masses rise behind them," said Professor Gilles Kepel from the Institute of Political Studies, who is also author of "The War for Muslim Minds."
In the past few years many parts of Asia, Europe and north America have experienced militancy in the name of Islam. But extremist attacks, the high-casualty bombings unsupported by a clear political movement, seem unattractive to majority civic-minded muslims in Southeast Asia. Professor Kepel explained: "People don't buy their stuff and particularly in Southeast Asia where you have sort of a can-do muslim societies. People are horrified by their propaganda. I mean in countries like Iraq or Palestine where there don't seem to be any solution in the near future, you can understand that among the young disenfranchised people there is a feeling to have martyrs stemming out of the downtrodden. But in Southeast Asia it's a different culture."