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When Ben and I talked last week to Maj. Todd Schmidt about his proposal that the U.S. encourage Western-style education in the Muslim world -- part of winning the "war of ideas" in the war on terror -- there was one clear hitch: Would the Muslim world accept U.S. education efforts? Schmidt's response: The U.S. probably needs to keep its fingerprints off the program and work through international institutions.

With that in mind, there's a hopeful story in today's New York Times about efforts to bring a Western-style education to young Pakistanis -- by the Turks.

The Turkish schools, which have expanded to seven cities in Pakistan since the first one opened a decade ago, cannot transform the country on their own. But they offer an alternative approach that could help reduce the influence of Islamic extremists.

They prescribe a strong Western curriculum, with courses, taught in English, from math and science to English literature and Shakespeare. They do not teach religion beyond the one class in Islamic studies that is required by the state. Unlike British-style private schools, however, they encourage Islam in their dormitories, where teachers set examples in lifestyle and prayer.

“Whatever the West has of science, let our kids have it,” said Erkam Aytav, a Turk who works in the new schools. “But let our kids have their religion as well.”

That's probably how it will have to work. Secular schools aren't going to get any traction in the Middle East -- but the Turks, who have long straddled the divide between the modern West and the Middle East, can offer a path to a less radical Islam and the possibility of acquiring actual skills to compete in the world economy. This isn't the kind of thing that has immediate payoffs, but it might make us safer 15, 20, 30 years from now.