women outnumber the men 65 percent to 35 percent. Even some Islamic countries that were initially reluctant to embrace modernization have begun to do so. For example, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates now feature satellite campuses of major Western universities. One reason for the shift is that the experience of other regions, such as Asia, has shown that modernization does not simply equal westernization-that it is possible to pursue, say, economic and social development while still retaining distinctive cultural characteristics.
It is true that a certain number of young Muslims will continue to choose rebellion against the modern world rather than integration into it, joining radical Islamist groups and trying to wreak havoc where they can. About 30,000 Muslim fighters from all over the world, including the West, have joined the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). But however much they constitute a major global security problem, they are dwarfed by, say, the 200 million nonradical Muslims who live peacefully in Indonesia alone. Indonesia has elected two consecutive leaders committed to integrating the country into the modern world, and its largest Muslim organization, the 50- million-plus-member Nahdlatul Ulama, has publicly challenged ISIS' actions and ideology.
The real challenge, therefore, is not the Islamic world per se but figuring out how to bolster the pro-modernization trends in that world while containing the radical trend. In retrospect, it was a mistake for the West to have remained silent when Saudi funding dramatically increased the number of radical madrasahs around the world. A comparable investment today in building a good modern school next to each radical one would create a contest for legitimacy that would likely spread Enlightenment values far and wide. Such a program could be undertaken by the UN agencies UNESCO and UNICEF at relatively modest cost, and it is only one of many possible lines of advance in attacking the problem.
CHALLENGING CHINESE
The second great challenge many worry about is the rise of China. China's success, however, can also be seen as the ultimate triumph of the West. The emperor Qianlong famously wrote to Great Britain's King George III in 1793 saying, "Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. There [is] therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce." Two centuries later, the Chinese understand that absorbing Western modernity into their society has been crucial to their country's reemergence. It has led to rapid economic growth, new and gleaming infrastructure, triumphs in space exploration, the spectacular 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and much more.
Even as Chinese society has accepted modernity with great enthusiasm,
however, it has not abandoned its Chinese cultural roots. The Chinese look at their modern Chinese civilization and emphasize its Chineseness, seeing
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