Of Danish Cartoons, Muslim Rage and the Bedouin State of Mind

The beast within Islam has been prowling for a very long time. Islam as religion was also a civilizing force in Arabia as it brought for a while some discipline to its native population, the Bedouins of the desert. But the Bedouins are, Ibn Khaldun wrote, “a savage nation, fully accustomed to savagery and the things that cause it… Such a natural dispositio […].

Free Alaa

D’après les informations fournies par Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket, l’aggregateur des blogs égyptiens, lauréat du prix spécial Repoter Sans Frontières de l’année 2005, Alaa Abd El Fattah vient d’être arrêté le dimanche 7 mai avec 14 autres pendant qu’ils se rendaient à une manifestation, devant le siège du syndicat des journalistes égyptiens, contre la comp […].

The Anti-Imperialist Left Confronted with Islam

Whether the unbelievers can freely express themselves is obviously another question. Often they can’t, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. As is the case here, religion is not the central element in the life of Muslims. People work, eat, make love, build families. Some go to the mosque, others don’t. Exactly like in other parts of the world. The d […].

Tunisia : independent but not free

Tunisia celebrates the 50th anniversary of independence this month, but hopes raised by the end of French rule and early reforms have long evaporated. The country is governed and owned by General Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. But opposition groups have begun to suppress their divisions and make an attempt at collective resistance. […].

Islam’s Crisis of Authority

Unlike Catholicism with the Vatican and the pope, Islam has no central authority. And the recent furor over Muslim cartoons in Europe has exposed this void even more clearly. Richard Bulliet, author of “The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization,” explains that this void in authority in Islam is only increasing as Muslims reach out to various people and in […].

Political Islam

The contrasts between different varieties of Islam, and Islamism, are not trivial—either in their teachings or the behaviour they inspire. The western world needs to know about them, if only to know which outcomes and shifts of policy are conceivable, and which are not. But woe betide any western strategist who thinks the problems of the Muslim world can b […].

Islam and Power

There is a tension in the Islamic world between the desire for democracy and a respect for liberty. (It is a tension that once raged in the West and still exists in pockets today.) This is most apparent in the ongoing fury over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a small Danish newspaper. The cartoons were offensive and needlessly provoc […].

The Key To Arab Reform: Moderate Islamists

Before any significant political reform can take place in the Arab world, the United States and Europe need to begin engaging moderate Islamists, an action less thorny than it might seem because Islamists have embraced democratic procedures and have shown a strong commitment to the rule of law. For a long time Arab regimes have frightened the United States […].

Towards A New Islamic Discourse

Islam is portrayed sometimes as if it were a monolithic or uni-dimensional entity. Islam is undoubtedly the faith of transcendental monotheism , the belief in Allah (the one and only God), who transcends both man and nature. But monotheism does not lead to monism (the metaphysical doctrine that existence is a whole and one); on the contrary, it leads to pl […].