I’m as skeptical about Pervez Musharraf’s true motives as anyone. We shouldn’t forget that until recently, his government was a major source of support for the Islamo-fascists.

But he sure has been saying all the right things recently—in a part of the world where that can get you killed. At an Islamic conference on science and technology, he told the delegates:

President Musharraf said the time had come for Islamic nations to take part in collective self-criticism.

Once such an assessment is made, it would not be difficult to realise that the entire Islamic world was far behind the developed world, he argued.

The Muslim Ummah, or the Islamic world, he said was presently living in darkness.

“Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race,” he told the delegates.