Middle East Quarterly articles from September 2007

Middle East Quarterly archives from September 2007

Peace or Jihad? Abrogation in Islam.(Islamist Ideology)
September 22, 2007... That there is no compulsion in Islam and that Islam is a religion of peace are common refrains among Muslim activists, (1) academics, (2) officials, (3) and journalists. (4) In an age of terrorism and violent jihad, nowhere, they argue, does...

Should Muslims integrate into the West?(Islamist Ideology)
September 22, 2007... The veil has become the center of a European fight over how to balance expressions of Muslim identity with the Western idea of citizenship. (1) How can states achieve a balance between republicanism and minority rights? Can majorities in...

Saudi gang rape victim faces 90 lashes.(Brief article)
September 22, 2007... A Saudi woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped, and then beaten by her brother has been sentenced to 90 lashes--for meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported on Monday. In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the...

The U.S. counter-propaganda failure in Iraq.(War and Terror)
September 22, 2007... Defeat of the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq requires not only a military approach but also a political component. Although the "surge" may stabilize parts of Iraq and reduce the level of violence while the additional troops remain in place,...

Palestinian prisoner: "thanks, but no thanks" to freedom.(Brief article)
September 22, 2007... One of the 256 terrorists slated for release Friday as part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "good will" gesture to the Palestinian Authority has said, "Thanks, but no thanks," to the offer. The prisoner chose to remain in an Israeli...

Terror in Black September: an eyewitness account.(War and Terror)(David Raab)(Personal account)
September 22, 2007... On September 6, 1970, terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked TWA flight 741 from Frankfurt to New York and Swiss Air flight 100 from Zurich to New York, diverting them both to a disused airfield in the...

Hamas steals Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize.(Yasser Ararat)(Brief article)
September 22, 2007... Jerusalem--Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Ararat in Gaza City. "They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat's Nobel Peace...

Has Hezbollah's rise come at Syria's expense?(War and Terror)
September 22, 2007... The Iranian and Syrian relationship with Hezbollah developed from a combination of ideological, domestic, and regional factors. Both Tehran and Damascus found Hezbollah to be a useful proxy to further regional objectives. Today, however,...

Turkish tax collectors crash celebrations.(Brief article)
September 22, 2007... ISTANBUL -- Turkish tax collectors are showing up in nightclubs, visiting soccer stadiums, and even questioning brides and grooms as they struggle to force people to pay up in a country where about half the workforce evades taxes. Finance...

Are Muslim countries less democratic?
September 22, 2007... Scholars and theoreticians have long argued about the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Bush administration support for export of democracy to the Middle East has brought the debate to the forefront of policy circles. As the discussion...

Militant Islam grips Baghdad's sectarian ghettos.
September 22, 2007... BAGHDAD--A young Iraqi Shiite journalist was told by shopkeepers in her neighbourhood that "safirat"--women who do not wear the Islamic headscarf--would no longer be tolerated on the streets. "I put on a hijab (headscarf), stopped walking...

Naser Khader and Flemming Rose: reflections on the Danish Cartoon controversy.(Interview)
September 22, 2007... On March 9, 2007, Middle East Quarterly publisher Daniel Pipes interviewed Naser Khader, a prominent Danish parliamentarian, at the parliament building in Copenhagen, and Flemming Rose, who as culture editor of Jyllands-Posten commissioned the...

Muslim group threatens Danish newspaper.(Islamic Faith Community)(Brief article)
September 22, 2007... COPENHAGEN -- A Muslim group lost a libel case on Friday against the leader of a Danish anti-immigrant party who had accused [the group's] members of treason for publicizing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. A court ruled that Pia Kjaersgaard,...

Western feminists: at the service of radical Islam.(Muslim Women Activists in North America: Speaking for Ourselves, A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Muslim Women Activists in North America: Speaking for Ourselves. Edited by Katherine Bullock. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 215 pp. $22.95, paper. A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass. By...

Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of International Jihad.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of International Jihad. By Lorenzo Vidino. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2006. 403 pp. $27. In Al Qaeda in Europe, Vidino, a counterterrorism expert at the...

Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands. By Robert Satloff. New York: Public Affairs, 2006. 251 pp. $26. In this very personal book, Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near...

Bridging the Divide: Peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Bridging the Divide: Peacebuilding in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Edited by Edy Kaufman, Walid Salem, and Juliette Verhoeven. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2006. 323 pp. $57.50 ($23.50, paper). Edited jointly by Israelis...

The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. By Walter Laqueur. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 228 pp. $22. Laqueur's survey of the long history of anti-Semitism is particularly valuable for insights...

Crude Power: Politics and the Oil Market.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Crude Power: Politics and the Oil Market. By Oystein Noreng. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.254 pp. $26.95, paper. Oil may well be the subject on which leftwing conspiracy theories are most deeply entrenched and enjoy the widest audience. An oil...

The Decline of the Anglo-American Middle East, 1961-1969: A Willing Retreat.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Decline of the Anglo-American Middle East, 1961-1969: A Willing Retreat. By Tore T. Petersen. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2006. 181 pp. $67.50. Petersen, a Norwegian scholar, asks why the cooperation that characterized...

Globalization and the Gulf.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Globalization and the Gulf. Edited by John W. Fox, Nada Mourtada-Sabbah, and Mohammed al-Mutawa. London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2006. 298 pp. $35.95, paper. No part of the world has been more transformed in the last fifty years than...

Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. By Matthew Levitt. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006. 336 pp. $26. Levitt, a former FBI analyst and deputy assistant secretary for...

Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads, and Osama bin Laden.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads, and Osama bin Laden. By Timothy R. Furnish. Westport: Praeger, 2005. 182 pp. $44.95. Furnish, who teaches at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta, has written a deliberately provocative narrative...

Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda: A Spy's Story.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda: A Spy's Story. By Omar Nasiri. New York: Basic Books, 2006. 384 pp. $26.95 ($15.95, paper). In 2002, Aukai Collins, a Californian convert to Islam, wrote a memoir, My Jihad, (1) recounting his days...

The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis. By Alireza Jafarzadeh. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 284 pp. $24.95. The armed Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), which is listed as a terrorist...

Islamic Imperialism: A History.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Islamic Imperialism: A History. By Efraim Karsh. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. 276 pp. $30. Karsh, head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College in London, situates historic Islamic...

The Israeli Military and the Origins of the 1967 War: Government, Armed Forces and Defence Policy, 1963-1967.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Israeli Military and the Origins of the 1967 War: Government, Armed Forces and Defence Policy, 1963-1967. By Ami Gluska. London: Routledge, 2007.324 pp. $125. The sensational Foxbats over Dimona thesis recently put forth by Isabella...

Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US. By Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism. New York: Prometheus Books, 2006.535 pp. $28. The recent thwarting of a terrorist attack against Fort Dix, New Jersey,...

King Hussein and the Evolution of Jordan's Perception of a Political Settlement with Israel, 1967-1988.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... King Husseiu and the Evolution of Jordan's Perception of a Political Settlement with Israel, 1967-1988. By Joseph Nevo. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.209 pp. $67.50. Laurie Brand argued in her 1994 book Jordan's Inter-Arab...

Londonistan.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Londonistan. By Melanie Phillips. New York: Encounter Books, 2006.218 pp. $25.95. Londonistan, one of many recent books on the Islamization of Europe, is more interesting than most because Phillips focuses on the...

The "New" Terrorism: Myths and Reality.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The "New" Terrorism: Myths and Reality. By Thomas Mockaitis. Westport: Praeger Security International, 2007.158 pp. $39.95. With a flood of books about terrorism, each author strives to stand out by developing a unique theme. All too...

Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East. By Valerie Marcel with John Mitchell, contributor. London: Chatham House, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2006.332 pp. $22.95, paper. The last decade has seen a...

Palestinian Refugee Repatriation: Global Perspectives.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Palestinian Refugee Repatriation: Global Perspectives. Edited by Michael Dumper. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2006. 338 pp. $120 ($35.95, paper). Palestinian Refugee Repatriation presents a selection of papers given at an...

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades).(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades). By Robert Spencer. Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, 2005. 270 pp. $19.95, paper. Spencer's book covers a lot of ground with a study of Muhammad, his early battles, the...

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. By Michael B. Oren. W.W. Norton, 2007. 736 pp. $29.95. America's first conflict in the Middle East, which occurred more than two hundred years ago, had nothing to do...

Shia Power: Next Target Iran?(Book review)
September 22, 2007... Shia Power: Next Target Iran? Edited by Michel Korinman and John Laughland. London and Portland, Ore.: Vallentine Mitchell Academic, 2007. 373 pp. $35. Korinman, a professor of geopolitics at the Sorbonne, and Laughland, a British...

The Truth about Muhammad, Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... The Truth about Muhammad, Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion. By Robert Spencer. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006. 224 pp. $27.95. Spencer's important biography of Muhammad deserves a wide audience. Its central...

While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within.(Book review)
September 22, 2007... While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within. By Bruce Bawer. New York: Doubleday, 2006. 248 pp. $23.95. While international government, law enforcement, and media attention has been focused exclusively on the...

Kamal al-Labwani.(Dissident Watch)
September 22, 2007... On November 8, 2005, Syrian police arrested Syrian physician and political activist Kamal al-Labwani as he arrived at Damascus International Airport upon his return from a trip to France and the United States. In Washington, he had met with...