Muslims and Liberals

The Daily Star – LebanonAugust 1, 2005 British Prime Minister Tony Blair has waged quite a campaign against a so-called “evil ideology” and the Pakistani madrasas, or Muslim religious schools, which supposedly teach it. In the course of his efforts, British special police have killed an innocent Brazilian electrician who probably looked to them like...

Middle East PolicySummer 2005 This book is a sociohistorical narrative of Islam in which author Reza Aslan debunks many Orientalist myths about the faith. Then he argues that the uplift of Muslim societies calls for their democratization and “the interpretation of Islam that yields to the reality of democracy” (pp. 265-66)–which leaves you wondering what...

The RecordMarch 15, 2005 Earlier this month, a 31-year-old Moroccan-born immigrant to Belgium quit her job at a prepared foods factory in the small town of Ledegem. Her decision was the result of several months of intimidation, beginning in November when her employer, Rik Remmery, received an anonymous letter. It claimed to be his “death...

The Washington PostMarch 13, 2005 Ten days ago, a 31-year-old Moroccan-born immigrant to Belgium quit her job at a prepared foods factory in the small town of Ledegem. Her decision was the result of several months of intimidation, beginning in November when her employer, Rik Remmery, received an anonymous letter. It claimed to be his...

The Daily Star – LebanonJanuary 11, 2005 The foreign ministers of several Arab regimes met in Jordan recently and issued a call to Iraq’s Sunni Arabs to participate in the January 30 parliamentary elections. Turkey and a reluctant Iran signed on to the appeal. The Sunni Arabs in Iraq have threatened to boycott the vote...

Boston GlobeDecember 23, 2004 WASHINGTON – A TIGER killed a fawn and began munching on it, according to a popular Bangladeshi folk tale. A hungry bear jumped on the tiger to snatch the carcass away. The two fought until both lay mortally wounded, unable to move. A fox, which was watching the fight from a...

The Daily Star – LebanonNovember 27, 2004 In Iraq they are comparing it to Hulagu Khan’s carnage. In the past year, following the U.S.-led war and the mayhem that followed, about 200,000 Iraqis have perished, according to a survey by the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg school of public health. Fallujah lies in ruins, while death,...

Middle East Policy2004 What went wrong in Iraq? Bernard Lewis, the author of the book What Went Wrong? and other promoters of the Iraq war got it all wrong when they thought that Muslim societies need to be and can be remade in the Western image. Few American intellectuals have argued this point as forcefully...

Middle East PolicySummer 2004 Soon after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Arundhati Roy wrote an article sharing Americans’ “immense grief” but also suggesting that they reflect on “why 11 September happened.” She received a torrent of letters calling her “a black bitch,” an “anti-American whore,” a “Communist,” and a “coon.”...

St. Louis Post – DispatchJune 17, 2004     COMMENTARY – A FORUM FOR OTHER VOICES, IDEAS AND OPINIONS Mustafa Malik, a Washington journalist, has researched ethnic and religious movements in the Middle East as a research associate with University of Chicago Middle East Center. DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ President Bush has hailed Iraq’s unfolding democratic process, which...