The extract includes passages that seem to have a realistic point of view as regards what Bhutto describes as a, "looming potential for a catastrophic showdown between Islam and the West. While she discussed the after effects of western dominance and colonization on the psyche of Muslim populations, she also discussed the "internal rift, an often violent confrontation among sects, ideologies and interpretations of the message of Islam". She further stated that, "This destructive tension has set brother against brother, a deadly fratricide that has tortured intra-Islamic relations for 1,300 years. It is most visibly manifest today in a senseless, self-defeating sectarian civil war that is tearing modern Iraq apart and exercising its brutality in other parts of the world, especially in parts of Pakistan.. While Bhutto does not absolve western foreign policy and meddling as contributory to Pakistani and regional woes, she alternately concluded that Islam is unwilling to look inwardly at itself and that this must occur to overcome current Muslim pride that, "is rarely derived from economic productivity, technical innovation or intellectual creativity. Those factors seem to have been part of the Persian, Mughal and Ottoman past but not the Muslim present. Now we see Muslim pride always characterised in the negative, derived from notions of 'destroying the enemy' and 'making the nation invulnerable to western assault'.

The extract also discusses the role of madrasahs that "breed terrorists - not scientists", and points out that Pakistan's $4.5 billion military budget is 1,400% more than is spent on education. As we see in other Middle Eastern nations where Islamic groups provide for the poor better than governments, Bhutto pointed out that, "Militant madrasahs did not flourish there because Pakistani citizens suddenly became more religiously orthodox than ever before in our history. The militants took advantage of parents from low-income social classes who wanted a better life for their children. If parents are so poor that they cannot educate, house, clothe, feed and provide healthcare for their children and the state fails to provide such basic human needs through public services, they will seek an alternative". The madrasahs take it upon themselves to indoctrinate the "have-nots", who, without any effective middle class buffer, will eventually confront the "haves" and if history is any lesson - that confrontation will be violent. Even in the history of the United States, concessions to the working poor have been won only after violence.

The weakness of the extract from Benazir Bhutto, and the comments that will follow from those in the region, will center around the idealistic words being tarnished by allegations of serious corruption charges during her two prior stints as Prime Minister of Pakistan. While Bhutto downplayed or denied such charges as political attacks - there are some seemingly substantiated charges of corruption including kickbacks to key political allies and family members paid into foreign bank accounts. In 2003, Swiss magistrates found Bhutto and her husband guilty of money laundering. In Poland and in France, evidence points to payoffs for contractual guarantees with Pakistan for agricultural equipment and military aircraft respectively. Other allegations have, in fact, been discovered as politically motivated and untrue. It will be interesting to see if the book, set for release in February, will shed more light on the corruption charges.

How Muslims and westerners alike will interpret the memoirs of the late Pakistani politician remains to be seen, yet the debate over her ideals needs to be furthered before a "reconciliation" between Islam and the West can be realized instead of a "disaster" that strikes at the heart of the enormous global conflict between western power and the masses of "have-nots" throughout Islam.

Exclusive: Benazir Bhutto's last testament, The Sunday Times, February 3, 2008.

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2.3.2008