    20

    g iants of the coming interactive media revolution, giving the Saudis

    additional leverage for American media manipulation.

    The ground is ripe for worldwide Islamic fundamentalist

    expansion.  Mohammedanism is currently the fastest-growing religion

    on the planet.69  There are a billion Moslems--as many as Jews and

    Christians combined--and that number is increasing daily.  According

    to Cairo University's Professor Ali Dessouki70, 50 countries are now

    Islamic. What's more, there are massive Mohammedan populations

    everywhere from Nigeria to Mongolia, the former Soviet Central Asian

    republics,71 Southeast Asia and the Philippines.  The countries with the

    world's largest Islamic bodies of citizenry are not even parts of the

    Arab world--they are Indonesia and China.72    To  top  it  off,  Islamic

    public opinion, if the Arabs,73 Iranians and Pakistanis are an accurate

    barometer, is virulently anti-American.

    Today's Islam extremism is the perfect example of a meme

    grown ravenous. Saddam Hussein, in his 1990 drive for expansion,

    claimed to be following Allah's message.  The late General Zia ul-Haq,

    former head of Pakistan, who masterminded the fundamentalist-led

    Afghan resistance efforts using U.S. funds, kept a map in his office

    with all Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia marked in

    green.  It was the symbol of his ultimate ambition--unified Moslem rule

    extending through every green-marked territory.74  In 1990, one

    enthusiastic Turkish official, minister of state Ercüment Konukman,

    noted the substantial Turkish populations in the former Soviet Union

    and China, and looked forward to uniting them "under the colors of

    the Turkish flag."75

    A fundamentalist clergyman in Lebanon says, "Don't believe that

    we want an Islamic republic in Lebanon. ...What Hezbollah wants is a

    world Islamic republic."76  Cairo constitutional lawyer Dr. A.K.

    Aboulmagd adds,77 "I even venture sometimes to say that Islam was

    not meant to serve the early days of Islam, when life was primitive and

    when social institutions were still stable and working.  It was...meant to

    be put in a freezer and to be taken out when it will be really needed.

    And I believe that the time has come. ...The mission of Islam lies not in

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