Middle East Quarterly articles from March 2006

Middle East Quarterly archives from March 2006

CAIR: Islamists fooling the establishment.(Council on American-Islamic Relations)
March 22, 2006... The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in Washington, is perhaps the best-known and most controversial Muslim organization in North America. CAIR presents itself as an advocate for Muslims' civil rights and the...

The Islamist challenge to the U.S. Constitution.
March 22, 2006... First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and...

Re-energizing a West Bank-Jordan alliance.
March 22, 2006... Hamas's landslide victory in the recent Palestinian parliamentary elections is the latest sign of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) failure. The collapse of the West Bank into civil chaos and jihadist control would pose a security dilemma not...

At what cost Israel-China ties?
March 22, 2006... Israel's military ties with China--especially the upgrading of Harpy surveillance aircraft--are undermining the Jewish state s security. The dispute goes beyond friendly and short-lived differences of opinion. Rather, the diplomatic row...

To strip or not to strip?(cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... CAIRO -- An Egyptian cleric's controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars. According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean...

Replace Turkey as a strategic partner?
March 22, 2006... The U.S.-Turkish partnership remained strong throughout the Cold War. Turkey was a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member and a frontline state against the Soviet Union. Washington valued Ankara as a strategic partner. But, with the...

Has the Saudi kingdom reformed?(Discussion)
March 22, 2006... On February 14, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman al-Saud on board the USS Quincy, anchored in the Great Bitter Lake along the Suez Canal in Egypt. The summit cemented a lengthy and, in recent years,...

Tired of commuting, four Saudi teachers marry driver.(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... RIYADH -- Four Saudi women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday. The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in southwest Saudi Arabia were...

Does Saudi Arabia fund terrorism?
March 22, 2006... In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, several U.S. congressmen asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to determine to what degree Saudi sources engaged in support and funding Islamic extremism. On September 16, 2005, the GAO...

Europe: "our discussions with Iran have reached an impasse".
March 22, 2006... For more than a decade, the European Union has pursued economic engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran arguing that trade, rather than confrontation or sanctions, could best reverse Tehran's terror sponsorship, human rights abuses, and...

Mislabeling genocide?(The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians. By Donald Bloxham. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.329 pp. $35. Bloxham's Great Game of Genocide is both broader and narrower than...

Hammer, sickle, and crescent.(The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. By Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. New York: Basic Books, 2005.677 pp. $29.95. One of the worst mistakes ever made by the KGB, the Soviet security agency,...

Addicted to Oil: America's Relentless Drive for Energy Security.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Addicted to Oil: America's Relentless Drive for Energy Security. By Ian Rutledge. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2005. 336 pp. $45. Millions of people around the world subscribe to the idea that an insatiable thirst for oil motivated the U.S....

Among Warriors in Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Among Warriors in Iraq. By Mike Tucker. Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press, 2005. 234 pp. $16.95, paper. More than 500 journalists were embedded with U.S. military units as they rolled into Iraq in March 2003. Once Baghdad fell, many returned...

Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict. By Edwin Black. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2004. 471 pp. $27.95. Black's fascinating account brings Iraq's rich history vividly to life. The author...

The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. By Richard W. Bulliet. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. 187 pp. $24.50. Bulliet contends that Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis and "Islamophobia" are obscuring the...

Dancing in the No-Fly Zone: A Woman's Journey through Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Dancing in the No-Fly Zone. A Woman's Journey through Iraq. By Hadani Ditmars. Northampton, Mass.: Olive Branch Press, 2005. 263 pp. $16.95. Ditmars, a freelance writer, visited Iraq several times before Saddam's fall, reporting for such...

Economic Relations between Egypt and the Gulf Oil States, 1967-2000: Petro-Wealth and Patterns of Influence.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Economic Relations between Egypt and the Gulf Oil States, 1967-2000: Petro-Wealth and Patterns of Influence. By Gil Feiler. Brighton, England: Sussex Academic Press, 2003. 407 pp. $69.95. At the Khartoum summit in August 1967, when the Arab...

The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq. Edited by Brendan O'Leary, John McGarry, and Khaled Salih. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.355 pp. $45. The Kurdistan National Assembly in Erbil, Iraq, formally inaugurated Kurdistan...

The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs": How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs." By William O. Beeman. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005.298 pp. $49.95. In The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs, " Brown University anthropologist Beeman laments that the "cultural dynamics" of the...

The History of Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The History of Iraq. By Courtney Hunt. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. 127 pp. $45. The History of Iraq is a Cliff's Notes' to Iraq's past that, according to its foreword, seeks to provide "students and interested laypeople with...

H.V. Evatt and the Establishment of Israel: The Undercover Zionist.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... H.V. Evatt and the Establishment of Israel: The Undercover Zionist. By Daniel Mandel. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2004.318 pp. $135 ($43.95, paper). Between 1947 and 1949, United Nations decisions changed the shape of the Middle East....

Israeli-Jordanian Dialogue, 1948-1953: Cooperation, Conspiracy, or Collusion?(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Israeli-Jordanian Dialogue, 1948-1953: Cooperation, Conspiracy, or Collusion? By Yoav Gelber. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2004. 357 pp. $69.50. Almost six decades after the U.N. partition of Palestine, ascription of blame for...

Jordan since 1989: A Study in Political Economy.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Jordan since 1989: A Study in Political Economy. By Warwick Knowles. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005.288 pp. $75. Jordan since 1989 appears to be a typical academic political science tome, one dedicated to expounding obscure theoretical models of...

Land beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Land Beyond the River: The Untold Story of Central Asia. By Monica Whitlock. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002.290 pp. $27.95, paper. The Land Beyond the River provides one of the most vivid pictures available of the complex relationship...

Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Edited by Ibn Warraq. New York: Prometheus Books, 2003. 471 pp. $28. In Leaving Islam, Ibn Warraq has assembled a compelling list of writings from individuals of Muslim birth who renounced their faith. It...

Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Ataturk and Reza Shah.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Ataturk and Reza Shah. Edited by Touraj Atabaki and Erik J. Zurcher. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004. 286 pp. $65. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Reza Shah sought to modernize...

Negotiating Outside the Law: Why Camp David Failed.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Negotiating Outside the Law: Why Camp David Failed. By Raymond G. Helmick, S.J. London: Pluto Press, 2004. 336 pp. $27.95. As its title suggests, this book's leitmotif is that peacemaking can succeed only if based on international law, and...

Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews. By Stephen Spector. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 320 pp. $28. It took the government of Israel nearly three decades to take significant steps to bring the Jews of...

The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege. By Kenneth Levin. Manchester, N.H.: Smith and Kraus, 2005. 571 pp. $35. In this massively researched, lucidly written, and cogently argued narrative, Levin tells the appalling story of...

Palestine: A Traveller's Guide.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Palestine: A Traveller's Guide. By Mariam Shahin. Photography by George Azar. Northampton, Mass.: Interlink, 2004. 500 pp. $27.95, paperback. Shahin, described as journalist and author, has written a most curious guidebook. The genre...

Revolt on the Tigris: The Al-Sadr Uprising and the Governing of Iraq.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Revolt on the Tigris. The al-Sadr Uprising and the Governing of Iraq. By Mark Etherington. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. 241 pp. $25/13.50 [pounds sterling]. In April 2004, Shi'ite firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Jaysh...

Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 American Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 American Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah. By Andrew C.A. Jampoler. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. 302 pp. $32.95. The multi-month expedition undertaken by the...

Security, Reform, and Peace: The Three Pillars of U.S. Strategy in the Middle East.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Security, Reform, and Peace: The Three Pillars of U.S. Strategy in the Middle East. By the Presidential Study Group. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2005. 82 pp. No cost, paper and download. (13) Every four...

The Shahids: Islam and Suicide Attacks.(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Shahids: Islam and Suicide Attacks. By Shaul Shay. New Brunswick, N.J. and London: Transaction Publishers, 2004. 246 pp. $39.95. Since the early 1980s, the world has witnessed many instances of the grotesque instrument of suicide...

The Yom Kippur War: The War that Transformed the Middle East.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... The Yom Kippur War: The War that Transformed the Middle East. By Abraham Rabinovich. New York: Schocken Books, 2004. 543 pp. $27.50 ($16, paper). Rabinovich has greatly advanced the understanding of the Yom Kippur war. An increasing number...

Dissident watch: Kamal Sayid Qadir.
March 22, 2006... On October 26, 2005, security officers associated with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) detained Kurdish writer and Austrian citizen Kamal Sayid Qadir in Erbil, northern Iraq. Qadir had angered Barzani with...