Voices of Islam

What does conflict with Iraq mean to Muslims? In Kuala Lumpur last week, TIME's Southeast Asia correspondent Simon Elegant gathered five of Asia's most prominent Muslim thinkers and opinionmakers to debate the vexing issues an Iraq war raises—including the danger that it might radicalize moderate Muslims and trigger a violent anti-U.S. backlash. The panel comprised lawyer and writer Karim Raslan; parliamentarian Mustafa Ali of Malaysia's Islamic Party (PAS); scholar and human-rights activist Chandra Muzaffar; lawyer and activist Latheefa Koya, and journalist M.J. Akbar, editor of Asian Age in New Delhi. Highlights of the discussion:

TIME: How does this war differ from the first Gulf War?

AKBAR: The issue now is as much George W. Bush as it is Saddam Hussein. In 1991, America started alone and created a unique international coalition. This time, America started with the world on its side—the support it received after 9/11 was instant and unequivocal. Bush has, bit by bit, destroyed that goodwill. There's a global peace movement even before actual fighting has started. This is a minor miracle. The world is standing up for a loser—Saddam. Everyone knows he cannot last against America, and everyone agrees he runs an extremely unsavory dictatorship. It is remarkable that people across the world—Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims—are standing up against the imposition of a unilateral world order. This is extremely heartening because it cuts across the simplistic division of the world into Islam vs. Christianity. But I must stress that to be anti-Bush is not to be pro-Saddam.

KARIM: We are seeing a more heated argument against American power. The major powers of the Western alliance have taken a conscious decision to prevent a conflict that could create serious instability. This is a relief because it means that the cause of peace is not just a "Muslim" cause.

MUSTAFA: Iraq is a Muslim country so naturally the "Muslim" angle arises, but the perspective is larger than that. War against Iraq is a war against humanity. America's principal interests are oil and Israel.

CHANDRA: The reason why an "Islamic" angle gets attached is because of a perceived pattern of the Bush offensive. Afghanistan came before Iraq. Will it be Iran after this? You get the sense that Muslims are being targeted.

LATHEEFA: There's paranoia against Muslims. My two female cousins, who are sisters, staged a peace protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Singapore. Though they were just collecting signatures, they were detained and interrogated. And then, their computers were taken away, and one husband was asked why he had so much Islamic reading material at home. These people are Muslim, the women wear the Muslim head scarf, but they are innocent. Can they be charged for inciting peace?

TIME: How worried should we be that a war will further radicalize Muslims?

CHANDRA: Things could get dangerous. Jemaah Islamiah will want to target Singapore, as it's the operational center of America's military command in this region. In Indonesia and the southern Philippines, an attack on Iraq will worsen the political violence already occurring.

KARIM: Indonesia can burst apart so very easily. The government is not strong.

AKBAR: Pakistan, too.

LATHEEFA: Conservatism is not necessarily extremism. Conservative Muslim parties—like PAS in Malaysia—can come to power through the democratic process. That does not make them "radical" in the sense that the word is being used now, as hostile to Western interests. Plus, there is racial profiling. The groups that have gone to Iraq from the West as human shields—if they were Muslims they would have been labeled radicals. Suicide bombers create violence, sure. But you cannot condemn them totally. They have a cause. They do not have an army. How should the Palestinian people respond to continued Israeli terror tactics?

CHANDRA: People become desperate. When they are desperate they will use the ultimate weapon—their own lives. Despair gives birth to violence. Don't just give a bad name to Islam. Try to understand the process through which it is passing.