Berry Rubin (via the U.S. foreign service website AmericanDiplomacy.org) has an article about the ideological influence of extreme Islam and its failure to provide tangible results to improving the Arab situation in the Middle East. While some people may consider this victim blaming, the reality is that the Arab response has done a great deal to perpetuate the status quo. The article doesn’t provide a solution to the problems of the middle east but it does enable a framework for better understanding the problem.