Analysis & Commentary
Confronting Islamic Intimidation
In 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ, the movie by Martin Scorsese, based on a novel by the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, caused a storm of protests. Many Christian groups found it...
Living with Islam
For close to 1,300 years, Muslims cared little what infidels thought of them. The curious caliph, sultan, vizier, or cleric might engage the arguments of Christians questioning the one true...
The Video Didn’t Do It
It was bad enough, two years ago, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates called fringe Florida pastor Terry Jones to ask him not to burn copies of the Koran, or last week, that chairman of...
Misunderstanding 9/11
‘We have seen that the desire for liberty and freedom is, indeed, universal, as men and women in the Middle East rise up to seize it.” I admire Condoleezza Rice and thought...
Do Americans Dare Trust Egypt’s President Morsi?
The dramatic attacks on the U.S. embassy in Cairo capped off a summer in which Egypt has already seen its greatest political developments in 150 years. The first democratic elections...
Free Speech and Political Violence
I find the number of people willing to censor offensive speech in the wake of the anti-Islam film, and the reaction that it has provoked, disturbing. One example is this USA Today op-ed...
Jeane Kirkpatrick’s War
Jeane Kirkpatrick spent her life studying — and fighting — totalitarianism. Reading Peter Collier’s illuminating new biography, Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick...
Islamism in the Popular Imagination
The term “Islamist” has been bandied about frequently since revolutionary events gripped the Arab world last year. It is a term meant to signify those, including political parties.
Secretary Clinton and ‘Real Democracy’ in the Middle East
“The era of Big Government is over!” I could not get President Bill Clinton’s famous declaration out of my mind this morning as I read the speech Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave in Egypt yesterday.
Fighting the Ideological War
Islamism is a growing and powerful ideology that tolerates no dissent or rivalry. Yet in recent decades the United States has responded only to the violence that Islamism has generated, not to the beliefs and ideas that drive it.
What’s Next for Egypt?
What’s going to happen in Egypt now that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi has been elected president? That’s the question weighing heavily on everyone’s minds—perhaps no one’s as much as Benjamin Netanyahu’s.
Read Me If You Can: Censorship Today
It all goes back to the Rushdie Affair. In 1988, when an Indian-born Briton wrote a novel that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad in a less-than-reverent light, the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a religious edict, encouraging any Muslim, anywhere, to kill him.
Study Shows Saudi Ambivalence on Radicalism
On May 27, an airstrike by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in northeastern Afghanistan killed Sakhr al Taifi, a Saudi citizen and al Qaeda's deputy commander for Afghanistan.
In Attempt to Garner Votes, Obama is Ignoring the Palestinians
Tuesday evening, it seemed like deja vu, when U.S. President Obama "dropped by" a meeting at the White House between his chief of staff, Jacob Lew, and a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders.
From Democracy to Sharia
A few weeks ago, amid the “Arab Spring” giddiness, a Shiite mosque opened in Cairo. This was big news. Among Egypt’s 80 million people, there are only a few thousand Shiites.
Facebook Must Contend with Saudi Radicalism
Despite the clerics’ historical opposition to modern technology, they’re increasingly gravitating towards it. Here are five of the Saudi clerics’ most politically incorrect messages that you (probably) wouldn’t want your religious leaders repeating.
Moderation Happens To Islam, Not In Islam
“If you want meaningful moderation in Islam, then turn for more lessons to the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, Indonesia.” I imagine my colleague Irshad Manji is having second thoughts about that line (brought to my attention by Andrew Bostom).
Western Sharia
Ismail Belghar, a 36-year-old Muslim man living in Australia, assaulted, abducted, and nearly killed his sister-in-law. The victim, a 25-year-old Moroccan named Canan Kokden, had dared to take her older sister, Mrs. B, to the beach without Belghar’s permission.
Se Fatwa e Sermoni Si Fanno su Twitter
Mohammad al-‘Arifi ha un milione e 500 mila follower su Twitter e di professione fa l’imam in Arabia Saudita. Insieme a ‘Aidh al-Qarni e Salman al-Odah (oltre un milione di seguaci nel mondo dei cinguetti virtuali)...
Wahhabi Intolerance in the 21st Century
In early 2011, along with a handful of other American journalists, I interviewed Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in Jerusalem. Ayalon pressed the need for recognition of Israel on the part of the Palestinian leadership–but not in English or Hebrew.
