Middle East Quarterly articles from September 2001

Middle East Quarterly archives from September 2001

Israel's academic extremists.(pro-Palestinian voices in Israel's universities)
September 22, 2001... One day, when historians scratch their heads and wonder just how Israel could have adopted the policies it did in the the Oslo era of the 1990s, they will likely devote considerable attention to the role of the country's academics. In amazement,...

The ulema: Middle Eastern power brokers.(religious scholars)
September 22, 2001... Only the mullahs can bring the people into the streets and make them die for Islam--begging to have their blood shed for Islam. - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1) When the Western world looks at the Middle East, it sees an area...

The Tunisian model.(political stability)
September 22, 2001... The many headlines and bulletins about Arabic-speaking peoples routinely herald problems and crises facing the outside world. Iraq stands at the head of the line, followed not far behind by Libya, the Palestinian Authority, Sudan, and Syria....

Are Middle East conflicts more religious?(Statistical Data Included)
September 22, 2001... If, as many believe and scholarship confirms, religion is particularly important in ethnic conflicts involving Muslims, (1) how does this affect the nature of conflict in the Middle East? (2) This is a simple question, but finding an accurate...

Turkey's political earthquake.(1999 earthquake)
September 22, 2001... The dumplings at Joe's Shanghai, a wonderful dive hidden on a small street in the heart of New York's teeming Chinatown, have a cult following. They are made with a dollop of sauce inside, and you have to be careful how you eat them to avoid...

The Muslim claim to Jerusalem.
September 22, 2001... The Camp David II summit and the "Aqsa intifada" that followed have confirmed what everyone had long known: Jerusalem is the knottiest issue facing Arab and Israeli negotiators. In part, the problem is practical: the Palestinians insist that...

Khidhir Hamza: "I can foresee Saddam controlling the Middle East."(Interview)
September 22, 2001... Khidhir Hamza is the highest-ranking Iraqi scientist ever to defect and live to tell about it. Born in 1938 in Iraq, he received a masters degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from...

Films: apres la guerre.(effect of Persian Gulf War and civil war in Lebanon)
September 22, 2001... Of the many questions haunting the Middle East, two concern the legacies of recent conflicts when Arab fought Arab with fanatic gusto. Iraq and Lebanon are now both a decade after their wars, but question-marks still hover over the aftermath. Are...

Holier Than Thou: Saudi Arabia's Islamic Opposition.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Holier than Thou: Saudi Arabia's Islamic Opposition. By Joshua Teitelbaum. Washington: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2000. 123 pp. $19.95. Putting a disparate history together into a coherent account, Teitelbaum (a research fellow...

Islam and Salvation in Palestine: The Islamic Jihad Movement.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Islam and Salvation in Palestine: The Islamic Jihad Movement. By Meir Hatina. Tel Aviv: Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, 2001. 180 pp. $12.95 (from Syracuse University Press). With much scholarly attention devoted to Hamas, its smaller and...

Islam: a Short History.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Islam: A Short History. By Karen Armstrong. New York: Modern Library, 2000. 222 pp. $19.95. The Modern Library has attempted to stage a comeback by launching a large and ambitious series of handsomely produced volumes, most of which are indeed...

Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia. By Frank E. Vogel. Leiden: Brill, 2000. 404 pp. $127. Vogel, an assistant professor at the Harvard Law School, has two goals in his massively informative "first-order study of the Islamic...

The Koran: A Very Short Introduction.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The Koran: A Very Short Introduction. By Michael Cook. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 162 pp. $8.95. The Qur'an is one of the world's most important and most enigmatic books. In a beautifully written, concise, and insightful study,...

Legacy of the Prophet: Despots, Democrats, and the New Politics of Islam.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Legacy of the Prophet: Despots, Democrats, and the New Politics of Islam. By Anthony Shadid. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2001. 340 pp. $26. Oh no. Another Western journalist careening around the Middle East, interviewing hundreds of people from...

The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature. By Tarif Khalidi. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. 245 pp. $22.95. In 1989, the Iranian media called the showing in Istanbul of Martin Scorsese's blasphemous film,...

Islamic Interpretations of Christianity.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Islamic Interpretations of Christianity. Edited by Lloyd Ridgeon. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon, 2001. 255 pp. $45. In 1989, the Iranian media called the showing in Istanbul of Martin Scorsese's blasphemous film, The Last Temptation of Christ, a...

No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam. By Geneive Abdo. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 223 pp. $25. Geneive Abdo recently made headlines for her expulsion from Iran after a tumultuous two-year stint as Tehran correspondent...

Political Islam and the United States: a Study of U.S. Policy Towards Islamist Movements in the Middle East.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Political Islam and the United States: A Study of U.S. Policy towards Islamist Movements in the Middle East. By Maria do Ceu Pinto. Reading, U.K.: Ithaca, 1999. 340 pp. 35 [pounds sterling]. Pinto, a Portuguese scholar with a degree from...

Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics. By L. Carl Brown. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. 256 pp. $27.50. Brown, emeritus professor at Princeton University, is one of the giants of Middle Eastern studies and his books...

The Veil Unveiled: The Hijab in Modern Culture.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... The Veil Unveiled: The Hijab in Modern Culture. By Faegheh Shirazi. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001. 222 pp. $55. Don't expect a study laden with Qur'anic quotes and medieval glosses; Shirazi of the University of Texas instead...

Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments. By Gary Bunt. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000. 189 pp. 14.99 [pounds sterling]. Bunt, a lecturer in Islamic studies at University of Wales, has spent...

Von Gott zu Allah? Christentum und Islam in der liberalen Fortschrittsgesellschaft.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2001... Von Gott zu Allah? Christentum und Islam in der liberalen Fortschrittsgesellschaft. By Hans-Peter Raddatz. Munich: Herbig, 2001. 528 pp. DM 69.90 The non-Muslim discussion of Islam differs in basic ways in Western Europe and in North America,...