Loving Islamists

At Time magazine, a stupefyingly idiotic article, even by current Time standards. The headline pretty much says it all: “As Tunisia Counts its Votes, Can the West Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Islamists?” Writing confidently that “[t]here's no inherent contradiction between Islam and democracy,” author Tony Karon contrasts the “[s]ecular liberal parties, based largely in a relatively well-off segment of the urban middle class,” but “unable to connect with the language and priority concerns of the impoverished majorities,” with the Islamist parties, whose “extensive social and welfare programs, designed to ease the burden of the poor,” he extols. He seems totally clueless about what Islamism even means. How is it that so many of the readers who have posted comments on this article “get” Islamism while a Time author does not?