Beginning to comprehend Islam helped me realize what a clumsy term "religion" can be, when used without much thought by someone raised in a Eurocentric Judeao-Christian tradition. 

Certainly Confucianism is much more a philosophy than a either a set of public ceremonies or an attempt to draw near to a divine being.  Does it make much sense to call Confucianism a "religion," if by that term we imply something in the European Judaeo-Christian mold?

Likewise, when we talk about Islamic fundamentalists wanting to transform society, as opposed to just "practicing their religion," maybe we’re expecting inappropriate and unreasonable things from them.

Maybe telling a Muslim that he can "practice his religion" by going to a mosque and saying his prayers, but that he’s being excessive when he attempts to reshape society according to Islamic precepts, is like telling a Catholic he can keep bingo, but he has to give up the Mass.

For this reason, I’m beginning to suspect that we’re basing our policies with regard to the Islamic world on some pretty flimsy hopes.  And rather than continue to merely hope that Islam will remain in most countries only a "religious" force and not a political one, it may be more sensible to look forward to a time when a resurgent Islam, having taken the entirely natural first step of reassuming its traditional place as a system of social order, begins to evolve internally to become a more livable and appropriate system for coping with modern conditions.

In what directions is Islam likely to evolve?

To answer this question meaningfully, we would do well to ask ourselves forthrightly and frequently just what it is about the existing social order that so many people of all backgrounds find not just unfulfilling, but outright unacceptable.