The complicated origins of a universal idea: Anver M. Emon and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins review The Idea of the Muslim World by Cemil Aydin. The Islamic road to the modern world: Malise Ruthven reviews The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times by Christopher de Bellaigue and Freedom in the Arab World: Concepts and Ideologies in Arabic Thought in the Nineteenth Century by Wael Abu-Uksa. Ussama Makdisi (Rice): The Mythology of the Sectarian Middle East. Why the myth of Sunni-Shia conflict defines Middle East policy — and why it shouldn’t. An interview with Suzanne Schneider on the modern Middle East.
How to lose every war in the Middle East: A winning (losing) formula would look something like rush headlong into new conflicts, create failed states, prop up dictatorships, alienate the public — sound familiar? There is no good answer in the Middle East.
