Two Islamic Movements To Watch

John Allen Jr. reports what people rarely hear these days: a movement of Islam declares the "word" overcome the "sword."

Nursi is best known as the author of the Risale-i Nur, the "Message of Light," a 6,000-page commentary on the Qu'ran. He rejected political and military solutions to the crisis posed by secularism, instead concentrating on Qu'ranic study in light of the natural sciences. Nursi argued that the time of the "jihad of the sword" was over, and that now is the era of the "jihad of the word," meaning a reasoned attempt to propose Islam as a basis for a reconciliation of science and modern institutions with religious faith and morality.

Mr. Allen's insightful article confirms that all Islam is not terrorizing.