Religion Studies: Islam: Middle East

Bernard Lewis is recognized around the globe as one of the leading authorities on Islam. Hailed as "the world's foremost Islamic scholar" (Wall Street Journal ), as "a towering figure among experts on the culture and religion of the Muslim world" (Baltimore Sun ), and as "the doyen of MiddleEastern studies" (New York Times ), Lewis is nothing less than a national treasure, a trusted voice that politicians, journalists, historians, and the general public have all turned to for insight into the Middle East.Now, Lewis has brought together writings on religion and government in the Middle East, so different than in the Western world. The collection includes previously unpublished writings, English originals of articles published before only in foreign languages, and an introduction to the book by Lewis.

From the first expansion of Islam to the exploits of Saddam Hussein, Middle Eastern society has been fatefully involved with the West. This revised and updated collection of essays by a leading Western expert on Islam and the Middle East gives essential background to the present Middle Eastern conflicts and their interaction, through mutual misunderstanding, with Western conceptions. From the first expansion of Islam to the exploits of Saddam Hussein, Middle Eastern society has been fatefully involved with the West. This revised and updated collection of essays by a Western expert on Islam and the Middle East gives valuable background information in relation to the present Middle Eastern conflicts and their interaction, through mutual misunderstanding, with Western conceptions.

The Arab countries and the Arab Middle East have been projected as homogenous and united social and political entities. Yet beneath the surface, ethnic tensions and conflicts simmer. Some of these conflicts are well known and the issues arising are part of the regular diet of news. Other tensions involving ethnic minorities and ethnic Diasporas are less well known. But they are no less problematic for regional actors - particularly so since they are not only influenced by global developments, but they also significantly influence political, economic, cultural and ideological regional and intrastate developments. The focus is on ethnicity, ethnic conflicts and integration, and ethnic Diasporas in Egypt, Sudan, the Fertile Crescent countries, and Israel. The relations between these minorities and Diasporas and the dominant societies, as well as their interrelations within and across borders, have undergone significant change over the last two decades. In some cases, sections of ethnic minorities and Diasporas have been integrated into their respective states' societies. In other cases, tensions and conflicts have grown to the point of violent eruptions. The purpose of this book is to highlight the factors, forces, and circumstances that affect inter-communal relations in the region, and point toward strategies and circumstances that promote or hinder coexistence and integration, or antagonism.

The Middle East is the birthplace of ancient civilizations, but most of the modern states that occupy its territory today are of recent origin, as are many key concepts of communal and individual identity and loyalty that the peoples of the region now confront. In The Multiple Identities of the Middle East, eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis elucidates the critical role of identity in the domestic, regional, and international tensions and conflicts of the Middle East today. Examining religion, race and language, country, nation, and state, Lewis traces the rapid evolution of the identities of the Middle Eastern peoples, from the collapse of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire in 1918 to today's clash of old and new allegiances. He shows how, during the twentieth century, imported Western ideas such as liberalism, fascism, socialism, patriotism, and nationalism have transformed Middle Easterners' ancient notions of community, their self-perceptions, and their aspirations. To this fascinating historical portrait, Lewis brings an understanding of the region and its peoples, as well as a profound sympathy for the plight that the modern world has imposed on them. The result is an invaluable tool in our understanding of an area that is of increasing global importance and concern today.

Pakistan was founded in 1947 with a secular constitution. But its original intention of protecting religious minorities from persecution has been eroded by a process of Islamization, to the point where its Christian community is now under great pressure. This book reveals the gradual shift in the policy of the Pakistani state, and offers a warning to the West and minorities in other Muslim-majority countries of what can happen when conservative Islamic voices become politically dominant.

Why most of what you think you know about the Middle East is wrong The Middle East: a region that's almost never off the front pages, yet one most Americans know little about. The mainstream media and Ivy League academics only make matters worse by casting everything in the usual politically correct mold: Arab terrorists are just desperate freedom fighters, and the region's one free democracy--Israel--is the oppressor, not least because of its alliance with America. And if Islamic extremism is a problem, the establishment tells us, it's only because it's rooted in that source of all evils: religion. A different strain of political correctness has seeped into some minds on the right--most notably the Bush administration, which, so ready to buy into the egalitarian myths we are all taught, believed that Western-style democracy could flourish anywhere. Now, in The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Middle East, veteran Middle East correspondent Martin Sieff puts the lie to all these myths and clichés, giving you everything you need to know about the region to understand its past, its present, and its possible future. In The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Middle East, you'll learn: * How, for three decades, the British supported parliamentary democracy throughout the Middle East, but it didn't work * Why Britain's post-World War I Middle East policy was a comedy of errors and incompetence that soon escalated into tragedy * Where America went wrong in Iraq: how U.S. policymakers vastly underestimated the intransigent, unsophisticated, and anti-Western nature of its competing communities * How Saudi Arabia's security forces defeated al Qaeda--and why you never heard about it * Why we'll miss the Arab dictators when they're gone * How the Muslim nations of the Middle East took an irrevocable turn toward radical Islam not in the tenth century or after the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in the thirteenth century--but in 1979 * How the Arab states openly declared their determination to prevent a Jewish state from being born in 1947--twenty years before the West Bank and Gaza were first occupied The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Middle East is a bold first step toward facing the hard truths necessary for peace.

This book describes the turbulent political history of Afghanistan from the communist upheaval of the 1970s through to the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001. It reviews the importance of the region to external powers and explains why warfare and instability have been endemic. The author analyses in detail the birth of the Taliban and the bloody rise to power of fanatic Islamists, including Osama bin Laden, in the power vacuum following the withdrawal of US aid. Looking forward, Nojumi explores the ongoing quest for a third political movement in Afghanistan - an alternative to radical communists or fanatical Islamists and suggests the support that will be neccessary from the international community in order for such a movement to survive.