A review of Islamic Liberalism: A Critique of Development Ideologies, by Leonard Binder.
About the Author
Shaul Bakhash is Robinson Professor of Middle East History at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the author of The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (1990). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was an editor with Kayhan Newspapers in Tehran, and reported from Tehran for the Economist, the London Times, and the Financial Times.
The Islamic Republic is in a volatile, even prerevolutionary situation, hammered by foreign opposition and sanctions from the outside, and the disillusionment and discontent of its own people from within.…
The secularization hypothesis has failed, and failed spectacularly. We must find a new paradigm to help us understand the complexities of the relationship between religion and democracy.
The lack of democracy in the Arab world is a problem that goes far beyond the absence of competitive elections. This lack must be traced not to religion or culture,…
