Ayatollah Fadlallah’s Legacy II (Updated)
David Kenner at foreignpolicy.com writes incisively about Fadlallah’s legacy as a religious leader who inspired Hezbollah and the Dawa Party but charted an independent course. As Kenner chronicles, the...
View ArticleNew York, Viewed from the Rest of the World
I’ve spent much of the last week covering the Park51 story from the Arab world. The entire affair has attracted far less attention in the Islamic world than one might expect. We put together a story...
View ArticleBrotherhood boycott?
Parliamentary elections are coming up this fall in Egypt, probably in October or November. But the opposition and ruling National Democratic Party alike have their eyes on presidential succession,...
View ArticleRapture, Resistance, Revolution
In his review of A Privilege to Die for Global Post my friend the mystery writer (and veteran Middle East hand) Matt Beynon Rees calls attention to one the main endeavors of the book: to place front...
View ArticleThe Shiny New Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brothers hosted their grand coming-out party on Saturday night. Officially, the occasion marked the opening of their new headquarters, a seven-story monstrosity that looks like an egg-cream...
View ArticleStudying Political Islamism
Next spring I’ll be leading a group of graduate students at Columbia in a comparative analysis of how Islamist parties fare in provincial governance. The study will build on a project conducted by a...
View ArticleIslamist Surge?
WBUR’s Here & Now did a segment today on the success of Islamists in Tunisia’s elections, and the stated intent of Libya’s transitional rulers to base their new constitution on sharia (just like...
View ArticleThe Inevitable Rise of Egypt’s Islamists
A veiled woman casts her vote during the second day of the parliamentary run-off elections at a polling station in Cairo. Photo: Reuters CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s liberals have been apoplectic over the...
View ArticleHow Do Islamists Rule?
For the second year in a row, I’ve supervised a team of graduate students at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in a comparative study of Islamist political movements and provincial...
View ArticleEverybody’s an Islamist Now
The case that a political term has outlived its usefulness [Originally published in The Boston Globe Ideas section.] To watch the Arab world’s political transformation over the past year has been, in...
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