Middle East Quarterly articles from June 2008

Middle East Quarterly archives from June 2008

The economics of democracy in Muslim countries.(Focus on Governance)
June 22, 2008... Last year was a tumultuous one for democracy in Muslim-majority countries. On July 22, 2007, despite Turkish military warnings three months earlier about the danger to secularism posed by the impending election/the Islamist Justice and...

The costs of relying on aging dictators.(Focus on Governance)
June 22, 2008... Almost as soon as it started, the democratization agenda that the Bush adminisration hoped would be the lodestar of its post 9-11 foreign policy has been all but shelved. The insurgency and sectarian bloodshed in Iraq, the regional threat posed...

Sinning in a Saudi starbucks.(story of the discrimination experienced by women in Saudi Arabia)(Brief article)
June 22, 2008... Her story offers a rare firsthand glimpse of the discrimination faced by women living in Saudi Arabia. In her first interview with the foreign press, Yara told The Times" that she would remain in Saudi Arabia to challenge its harsh enforcement...

Does foreign aid fuel Palestinian violence?
June 22, 2008... On December 17, 2007, eighty-seven countries and international organizations met in Paris and pledged to provide $7.4 billion over three years to the Palestinian Authority (1) (PA), an amount far in excess of any previous level of U.S. or...

European converts to terrorism.
June 22, 2008... Conversion to Islam among native Europeans is on the rise. Many converts live at peace within their native societies; some convert only for marriage, and reject neither contemporary culture nor Europe's Judeo-Christian values. A minority,...

A tale of two wives.(Muslim restaurant owner Mohammed Anwar avoids a ban for speeding using the reason that he has to commute between his business and two wives)(Brief article)
June 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When it comes to avoiding a ban for speeding, the courts hear every excuse in the book. But yesterday one motorist offered what must be a unique reason why he should keep his licence. Mohammed Anwar said a ban would...

Tactical hudna and Islamist intolerance.
June 22, 2008... The use by Westerners of the word hudna highlights an anomaly. Whenever journalists, diplomats, or commentators covering the Middle East use a non-English word, it will almost always be Arabic or perhaps Persian; seldom do they use any Hebrew...

The rise of the Chechen emirate?
June 22, 2008... Chechnya has been at war with Russia for generations. By 1999, when the second Chechen war broke out, two resistance groups had emerged: nationalists and jihadists. While long simmering below the surface, the schism between the two camps...

Iranian man dying for a drink.(a man called Mohsen was sentenced to death for drinking alcohol which is banned in Iran)(Brief article)
June 22, 2008... TEHRAN -- A young Iranian man has been sentenced to hanging for repeatedly drinking alcohol which is strictly banned in the Islamic Republic, the Etemad newspaper reported on Wednesday. The 22-year-old, identified only as Mohsen, was handed...

An Israeli watershed: strike on Syria.(September 2007 Israel Air Force attack on Syria)
June 22, 2008... On the morning of September 6, 2007, Israel Air Force (IAF) planes penetrated deep into Syrian airspace and attacked a nuclear facility near the town of Dayr al-Zur in the northeastern part of the country. In an almost unprecedented fashion,...

Ending Londonistan.(DOCUMENT)(comments on the flaws in Great Britain's anti terrorism strategies)(Excerpt)
June 22, 2008... In February 2008, Gwyn Prim, a professor at the London School of Economics, and Robert Salisbury, the marquess of Salisbury and a privy counselor, published a breakthrough essay in the RUSI Journal on the incongruity between current British...

Archbishop of Canterbury's Shari'a law row.(reactions to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams's idea to bring the Islamic law into the British legal system)
June 22, 2008... The Archbishop of Canterbury was facing demands to quit last night as the row over Shari'a law intensified. Lord George Carey, Dr. Williams' predecessor, criticised his comments on Shari'a law and said that accepting the Islamic code would be a...

Turkish secularism is democratic.(COMMENTARY)
June 22, 2008... Policymakers and future historians may get whiplash from divergent analyses of where Turkey is headed. Some Turkish writers--The Turkish Daily News' Mustafa Akyol and Zaman's All Aslan, for example--argue that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip...

Bashar Al-Assad.(Correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2008... To the Editor: Eyal Zisser concludes that Bashar al-Assad is secure ("Where Is Bashar al-Assad Headed?" Winter 2008). True, Assad is as secure as any other Arab leader. But what determines security is a single variable: the army. Say where...

Abrogation in Islam.(Correspondence)(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2008... To the Editor: David Bukay raises important questions about Islamic texts in "Peace or Jihad: Abrogation in Islam?" (Fall 2007), but his analysis should go further to explore where the fault lies when holy texts are used to justify...

The Middle East's tribal DNA.(Correspondence)
June 22, 2008... To the Editor: Philip Carl Salzman's article ("The Middle East's Tribal DNA," Winter 2008) is a healthy reminder of the importance of tribal structures on the culture and politics of the Arab and Muslim world. We only need look at the...

Amirs, Admirals and Desert Sailors: Bahrain, the U.S. Navy and the Arabian Gulf.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Amirs, Admirals and Desert Sailors: Bahrain, the U.S. Navy and the Arabian Gulf. By David F. Winkler. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2007. 244 pp. $34.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Written as a history of the U.S. Navy's relationship...

Arms Transfers to Israel: The Strategic Logic behind American Military Assistance.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Arms Transfers to Israel: The Strategic Logic behind American Military Assistance. By David Rodman. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2007. 129 pp. $45. Rodman's study of U.S. arms transfers to Israel provides important insight into this...

Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace.
June 22, 2008... Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace. By Arang Keshavarzian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 302 pp. $91. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the time of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, two-thirds of...

Between Foreigners and Shi'is.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Between Foreigners and Shi'is. By Daniel Tsadik. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007. 295 pp. $60. There is often an inverse relationship between the policy importance of a country such as Iran and the seriousness of the books...

Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. By Aliza Marcus. New York: New York University Press, 2007. 349 pp. $35. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Most writers on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, best known by its Kurdish...

China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... China and Iran: Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World. By John W. Garver. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006. 392 pp. $24.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Between 2005 and 2007, Iranian trade with China doubled to US$20...

Contemporary Politics in the Middle East.
June 22, 2008... Contemporary Politics in the Middle East. By Beverley Milton-Edwards. Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, 2007. 311 pp. $26.95. This second edition of a textbook incorporates changes that have occurred in the Middle East since Milton-Edwards, a...

Cooperating Rivals: The Riparian Politics of the Jordan River Basin.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Cooperating Rivals: The Riparian Politics of the Jordan River Basin. By Jeffrey Sosland. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. 293 pp. $80. Sosland, assistant professor of international business and trade at the American...

Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents. By Robert Irwin. New York: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2006. 410 pp. $35 ($16.95, paper). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whatever specialists thought of Edward Said's...

The Development of Trans-Jordan, 1929-1939: A History of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... The Development of Trans-Jordan, 1929-1939: A History of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. By Maan Abu Nowar. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 2006. 392 pp. $64. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Because the archives of many Arab countries are either...

For the Love of Zion.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... For the Love of Zion. By Elwood McQuaid. Bellmawr, N.J.: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., 2007. 294 pp. $12.95. McQuaid, editor-in-chief of Israel My Glory magazine, wrote For the Love of Zion from a self-avowed evangelical...

From Africa to Afghanistan: With Richards and NATO to Kabul.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... From Africa to Afghanistan: With Richards and NATO to Kabul. By Greg Mills. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2007. 260 pp. $34.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The title of Mills' book has an imperial ring to it, for there is...

From Patriarchy to Empowerment. Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... From Patriarchy to Empowerment. Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Edited by Valentine M. Moghadam. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2007. 384 pp. $45. The title of Moghadam's...

Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America. By Roger Howard. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007. 182 pp. $39.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Intelligent, well-informed Europeans--especially but not only leftists--have an impressive ability...

Iran on the Brink: Rising Workers and Threats of War.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Iran on the Brink: Rising Workers and Threats of War. By Andreas Malm and Shora Esmailian. London and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press, 2007. 262 pp. $90 ($28.95, paper). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The dramatic polarization of American politics has...

Islam and the Everyday World: Public Policy Dilemmas.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Islam and the Everyday World: Public Policy Dilemmas. Edited by Sohrab Behdad and Farhad Nomani. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. 240 pp. $150 ($45.95, paper). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jurists in most Muslim countries continue in...

Kurdish Identity: Human Rights and Political Status.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Kurdish Identity: Human Rights and Political Status. Edited by Charles G. MacDonald and CaroleA. O'Leary. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. 336 pp. $65. The reader of Kurdish Identity, published in 2007, will find himself...

My Life as a Traitor.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... My Life as a Traitor. By Zarah Ghahramani with Robert Hillman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 243 pp. $23. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This searing, moving account of torture and imprisonment could come from any totalitarian...

National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency: Report of an Independent Task Force.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency: Report of an Independent Task Force Chaired by John Deutch and James R. Schlesinger, directed by David G. Victor. Washington, D.C.: Council on Foreign Relations, 2006. 80pp. $15. One...

Palestine and Transjordan Geographical Handbook.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Palestine and Transjordan: Geographical Handbook. By the Naval Intelligence Division. New York: Kegan Paul, 2006.621 pp. $425. In 1915, the British admiralty established a geographical section within its Naval Intelligence Division to...

A Police Force without a State: A History of the Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank and Gaza.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... A Police Force without a State: A History of the Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank and Gaza. By Brynjar Lia. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 2007.477 pp. $54.50. Building Arafat's Police: The Politics of International Police Assistance...

Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic. Edited by Ilan Berman. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.118 pp. $75 ($24.95, paper). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With the aim of stretching our imaginations about...

Things Fall Apart.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Things Fall Apart. By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack. Washington: Brookings, 2007. 239 pp. $19.95. In Things Fall Apart, Byman and Pollack, both Washington policymakers now affiliated with the Brookings Institution, provide...

Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves. By Brian Michael Jenkins. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2006.236 pp. $19.95, paper. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a glutted marketplace, discerning readers will scrutinize...

Yemen into the Twenty-First Century.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... Yemen into the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Kamil A. Mahdi, Anna Wurth, and Helen Lackner. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 2007.464 pp. $54.50. In recent years, Yemen, a backwater for centuries, is in the news as Osama bin Laden's...

Mohsen Marzouk.(Dissident Watch)(Biography)
June 22, 2008... When Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali extended his term in 2004 for another five years, making him effectively president-for-life, Mohsen Marzouk realized that for change to occur not only in Tunisia but also in other North African...