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The article discusses how the U.S. war on terrorism has been hindered by its inability to clearly understand Islam and its lack of networking with moderate Muslims. The author questions if mainstream Islam is compatible with democracy and basic rights established by international law. March 2007 meetings of the Secular Islam Summit in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Council on American-Islamic Relations conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida helped to reveal an internal war within Islam. INSET: TERMS OF CONFLICT.

The article reports on the relations between Iran and the United States after an historic letter that broke 27 years of high-level silence between the two countries. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush discoursing on religion and politics but steering clear of the most immediate issue, Iran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S. is are wary of further forays into Middle East nuclear issues, but Iran seems to be in the midst of a military build-up.

The article discusses the efforts of U.S. President Barack Obama to repair the relations between Muslims and the U.S. which was damaged by the war on terrorism generally seen by Muslims as a war against Islam. Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, stresses the need for U.S. foreign policy to reinforce Obama's rhetoric. Some of the actions taken by Obama consistent with his aim to repair U.S.-Muslim relations are the closure of Guantánamo Bay detention camp and the ban on certain interrogation methods for detainees held by the U.S.