One reason the Muslims focus their anger on America is that it is American culture—not Swedish culture or French culture—that is finding its way into every nook and cranny of Islamic society.

There is a cultural blowback against America that is coming from all the traditional cultures of Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Asia. This resistance is summed up in a slogan often used by Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew: "Modernization without Westernization." What this means is that traditional cultures want prosperity and technology, but they don't want the values of American culture. The Islamic radicals are the most extreme and politically-mobilized segment of this global resistance, and they are recruiting innumerable ordinary Muslims to their proclaimed jihad against the values represented by America.

Islamic radicals have been remarkably successful in convincing traditional Muslims that America represents a serious threat to the Islamic religion. Bin Laden in one of his videos said that Islam faces the greatest threat it has faced since Muhammad. How could he possibly think this? Not because of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. Not even because of Israel. The threat Bin Laden is referring to is an infiltration of American values and mores into the life of Muslims, transforming their society and destroying their religious beliefs.

Even the term "Great Satan," so commonly used to denounce America in the Muslim world, is better understood when we recall that in the traditional understanding, shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Satan is not a conqueror; he is a tempter. In one of its best-known verses, the Koran describes Satan as "the insidious one who whispers into the hearts of men."

So what should America do about this? I'm not suggesting that we change our way of life to appease the mullahs. But I do think we should show Muslims, and traditional people around the world, the other America that they often don't see on TV and in the movies. The Bush administration must do more to highlight the presence, and values, of conservative and religious America. Moreover, we must do what we can to export this America to the rest of the world. This would undercut Bin Laden's accusation that the United States is an anti-religious, immoral society. While we can't change the minds of the Islamic radicals, we can diminish their appeal to traditional Muslims.