And Now, the Turkish Model.(Cover Story)

Byline: Graham E. Fuller (Fuller is a former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA. His latest book is "The Future of Political Islam.")

While violence seems to consume so much of the Muslim world, a different kind of Islamic revolution is taking place in Turkey. We could say that a new "model" is in the making. It's not the example that Washington used to tout--Turkey as a "secular" Muslim nation, anchored in NATO and strongly pro-America. To the contrary, Turkey is becoming a model for the Middle East and the rest of the Islamic world precisely because it is breaking with this old stereotype.

Today, Turkey is run by the first democratically elected--and pragmatically successful--Islamic party in the Muslim world's history. A healthy plurality of Turks voted for the Justice and Development Party not because they wanted more Islam, but because they believed the party could get things done. And it has. The past two years have brought extraordinary changes, from needed democratic reforms to a wholesale remaking of the economy. At the same time, the country is loosening its old geopolitical moorings. NATO membership notwithstanding, Ankara told Washington "no" in attacking Iraq from Turkish soil. With negotiations likely to begin soon on joining the European Union, Turkey in the future will grow closer to Europe than to America. All together, we have a fascinating new dynamic.

Ironically, it's only with these successes that Turkey could at last become a true model for Muslims worldwide. The point is not that the country needs an Islam-oriented government to succeed. It is the possibility of having one, rotating in and out like any other party, that places Turkey's democracy on a truly representative and sound footing. Most other Muslim states in the world are racked by clashes between harsh dictatorships and Islamist parties, which now represent the primary opposition to authoritarianism. Turkey is the first Muslim state that has solved this problem by successfully moderating and integrating Islamists into the political system.

What about the old Turkish model? In fact, the famed "secularism" of the past was not really that at all, at least as Americans or Europeans would ...