Iran is dangerously close to producing a nuclear weapon and igniting a region-wide arms race. It could be within a couple of months or a couple of years. Nobody knows exactly how much time is left, but the day that Iran goes nuclear is one that many hope will never come. The thought of a government run by Islamic extremists who want to ???????wipe Israel off the map??????? should send chills down the spine of anyone who lives in the free world.

Fortunately, there is time left. The breaking point is when Iran actually produces the weapons. Until then anything is possible. After that point, the West????????s options will be limited dramatically and it will be nearly impossible to prevent the rogue regime from doing whatever it pleases. Unfortunately, however, there already exists an authoritarian government in the region that has maintained nuclear arms for years already. And it faces the threat of a radical Islamist uprising that would put those arms into the hands of people who want to use them.

Pakistan.

The repressive policies of Gen. Musharraf????????s government have created an environment conducive to widespread support for Islamic extremists. Economically the country is in complete shambles, children are not being educated, and people are shot just for protesting these very same things. Since all meaningful moderate opposition is quite literally cut off at the knees, as in Iran, the only alternative is the mosque.

Protests over the Danish cartoon controversy have been the bigger than those in all other Muslim countries combined. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets because of it, but the demonstrators are mostly taking their anger out on the government.

Pakistan????????s Daily Times newspaper says that religious groups are rallying the masses against the government. It would be impossible for such large demonstrations to appear spontaneously in the country????????s urban areas. Tribal leaders and underground radical Islamist organizations are teaming up to oppose Musharraf????????s authoritarian government. The former want to be left alone and the latter want the country????????s nuclear weapons arsenal. And most problematically, as Mao Ze Dong would say, they are ???????swimming in a sea of support.???????

The country????????s largest radical Islamist alliance, the six-party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, planned a ???????peaceful protest??????? on Feb. 19 in Islamabad, the heart of Musharaff????????s power. In response the government has completely banned all rallies in the capital, arrested dozens of the group????????s leaders, and rounded up hundreds of its activists. A widespread, possibly crippling demonstration has been thwarted for now, but the momentum is on the Islamists???????? side and they will be harder to stop in the future.

It is a sign that the stability of the government is at its all-time low as these Islamist groups contend to take over through the use of people power. But there will be no Orange Revolution for Pakistan. The result instead will be a government desperately holding on to power through the use of any means necessary, with extremist groups willing to do anything to attain it.

The complication is that this challenge is arising directly because of Musharaff????????s repressive policies, which have depleted his legitimacy and caused the population to align with the Islamist forces. Yet this challenge is likely to only cause him to tighten his grip, not release it, culminating in a vicious cycle that will eventually lead to his downfall.

This is a grave threat that is going unnoticed. With Iran in the world????????s scope, Pakistan generally falls off the radar. But given that it already possesses a nuclear arsenal, the radical Islamists there may be closer than Ahmadinejad to obtaining weapons of mass destruction.