Jonathan Mok: What inspired you to write the book?

Hugh Miles: While writing my previous book, “Al Jazeera – How Arab TV News Has Challenged the World,” I had to travel all over the Gulf and North Africa. I soon realised it would make more sense to be based somewhere in the region than to commute back and forth from London every few weeks. I wanted somewhere central and accessible both to Europe and all the countries in the region. I love big cities so Cairo seemed like the obvious choice.

Cairo does not suit everyone – it’s crowded and terribly polluted – but I found it fascinating. It is the cultural heart and soul of the Arab world, where Arab trends start and I just wanted to soak it all up. The fact that you can live so well in Egypt compared to the cost of living of London certainly contributed to that decision!

I started working freelance for Western newspapers and magazines, covering everything from terrorism to the arts. I was on the point of leaving and then unexpectedly I met an Egyptian girl and fell in love.

Dating an Arab Muslim girl is not easy and I soon realised that I would have to find a clever way to spend time with her if we were not going to fall foul of conservative Egyptian society. So I began to play cards with her and her friends.

The stories I heard around the card table taught me much about the lives of young women in the Egyptian megalopolis and I felt privileged to glimpse what is normally the hidden half of Arab society.

I wanted to write about the cards sessions in a newspaper, but I knew it would not be possible as strictly speaking what I heard was not news. That’s when I decided to write a book.

Jonathan: Does the continuation of that traditional practices such as wearing veils, symbolize the failure of secularisation that the Egyptian government has tried to implement since Nasser?

Hugh: Women have always worn veils in the Middle East, even before there were any Muslims. Over the years the veil has gone in and out of fashion, almost disappearing from view altogether until a heavy-handed British administrator banned it, declaring it to be the “fatal obstacle” between Egypt and progress – establishing the veil as the symbol of resistance to the colonial regime for years to come.

Nowadays women wear veils for many reasons. It still symbolises resistance, no longer to colonialism but to the avowedly secular Mubarak regime. 60% of Egyptians have never known any other ruler in their lifetime and with no secular opposition parties to speak of, Islam has become the only alternative – even though Egypt’s principal Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood, remains outlawed.

The regime insists religion should be kept separate from politics – one reason why Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak is never veiled – but with inflation running at its highest level in years and food prices rocketing, the people have had enough. If there were truly free and fair elections in Egypt tomorrow the Muslim Brotherhood would win, or at least win the largest minority. So the secularisation policy has definitely failed.

Jonathan: Having lived in Egypt for a while, do you believe that some Western accusations against Islamic treatment of women such as the lack of personal freedom to choose careers or marriage partners, are justified?

Hugh: Women in Egypt suffer enormously. They are expected to do the child rearing and domestic chores, to abstain from interaction outside their family and to compete on an unequal footing with men in the work force.

Egyptian women are better educated than ever before, but constant sexual harassment makes their lives a daily misery and their lives are often blighted by discrimination and violence – frequently at the hands of male relatives. Worst of all, sex crimes are typically regarded as the female victim’s responsibility.

However, it would be an over simplification to say that Egypt’s endemic sexual discrimination is all because of Islam. Islam is a factor, but it is important to note that Christian women in Egypt suffer in exactly the same way as their Muslim sisters, suggesting the problem is cultural rather than religious. (Christians make up around 10% of the Egyptian population.) A lack of employment, education and hope all make matters worse, as does a government that tacitly accepts the situation.

Jonathan: Let’s talk about recent Egyptian riots against the rising price of bread and other commodities. Do you think that the riots have sent warning signals to the government over the widening income gap of the society?

Hugh: The bread crisis seems to be under control but the underlying problems remain. Egyptian society is polarising and while a tiny fraction of businessmen well connected to the regime have become massively wealthy, the average Egyptian now gets by on less than $1000 a year and a quarter of the country live on less than $2 a day. With prices out of control and rampant annual inflation, in real terms ordinary people are poorer now than they were in the 1950s.

The government says it will take time for the wealth to trickle down but clearly some sections of society are already at boiling point. Until the regime is prepared to make the same kind of deep political concessions that it has made economically – ending the systematic rigging of elections and opening the door to real democracy – tension in Egypt looks set to increase.

Jonathan: Will the thirty percent wage increase of government employees help reduce tensions?

Hugh: The government basic public-sector salary increase was a dramatic solution to a desperate problem. Basic commodities have doubled or even tripled in price in just a few months and they needed to do something urgently to quell social unrest.

In the short term, the salary increase bought the government some time. A nation-wide protest against the rising cost of living scheduled for May 4 turned out to be the damp squib which ministers have attributed to the wage increase, although opposition figures dispute this, saying it was because strike organisers made a tactical error calling for a protest so soon after another national strike last month.

What is clear is that a long-term solution to this problem has yet to be found.

The government plans to fund the 30% salary increase in large part by raising the price of fuel, cigarettes and car license fees. This is likely to increase inflation further, so to cut people’s spending the Egyptian Central Bank is raising interest rates again – the third time in just eighteen weeks.

The problem is that since Egyptians generally have very little debt, raising interest rates is unlikely to make much difference to their spending habits, and if inflation persists and food prices continue to soar, once again millions of the poorest will be hit hard and social unrest will continue.

Jonathan: What future you believe Egypt holds for its young people?

Hugh: Egypt looks like it could be facing a bumpy few years ahead. Although he still appears in good health, President Mubarak turned 80 in May and no successor has ever been nominated. Many assume his favoured son Gamal will assume leadership of the National Democratic Party but a power struggle may yet ensue.

Whoever takes over the reins inherits a complex knot of social and economic problems. By 2025 the population will have spiralled to 90 million and 450,000 new jobs will have to be generated each year simply to accommodate the number of young people entering the work place for the first time.

Meanwhile the regional picture also appears highly unstable. War and chaos loom across the region, and thousands of desperate refugees and economic migrants continue to arrive from across Africa and Iraq. In January hundreds of thousands of Palestinians burst through the Gaza blockade, an event that could repeat itself at any time.

What threatens national stability the most is not the death of the President or an attack by militant Islamists, but a provincial strike that spreads to infect the workers and police across the country. Already this year there have been dozens of strikes in factories across the country as terrible socio-economic conditions push the ordinary workingman towards breaking point. One of these days he might finally get there.

Hugh Miles, the son of a British diplomat, has a freewheeling approach to life that, by proxy, helps readers gain a better understanding of Egyptian society. This society is observed through the experiences of his female friends and Roda, an Egyptian woman who becomes his wife.

The book tells stories of Miles’ card-playing mates: Yosra, Nadia, Reem and, by extension, their relatives. The book also documents the blossoming of Miles’ relationship with Roda. Tough subjects, from family abuse to drug addiction, are tackled in this fascinating account.

The book reveals the failure of successive Egyptian governments since Nasser: the idea of secularization seems laughable in a place where millions of females suffer from family violence; the pledge for equality is a farce when one considers the levels of corruption within the state; discrimination against people of different class-backgrounds thrives in a society meant to be egalitarian.

The book also confronts the hypocrisy of stringent interpretation of Islamic law. For example, if pre-martial sex is not accepted, why is a contract marriage, urfi, permitted under Sunni Islam? (P.92-93)

Miles’ narrative is more heartfelt than some, because he is discussing his friends here. The contemporary problems of Egyptian society, lack of job opportunities for young people, lack of freedom of speech, the struggles of Muslims who want to leave their faith, feels more immediate.

Unfortunately, Miles does not really discuss the roots of many of Egypt’s problems. For example, he argues that “Cairo is a class-ridden society where people are expected to know their place…” (p.198) However, a curious outsider such as myself does not see him discussing why he thinks this is the case.

Miles is nevertheless right to question whether democratization will follow economic progress. The transformation of economy, in his eyes, “only [strengthens a] more authoritarian [Egyptian government]” (p.263) He has a point, based on other examples in the region.

Miles’ writing is not didactic. Through merely recounting the difficulties faced by his female friends, he retains enough objectivity to give readers their own chance to think about the status of Egyptian women.

“Today, Egyptian women are better educated than ever before, buy they are sill expected to do the child rearing and domestic chores…Though they can sometimes…choose a husband…family pressures are strong and their lives are blighted by discrimination, deprivation and violence.” (p.276)

Miles’ reserved tone is what really makes his writing resonate.

Islamic presence in Spain between the 7th and 14th centuries has long been considered a controversial topic. The ex-Spanish Prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, for example, added fire to the already intense discussions two years ago. He argued Muslims have never apologized for “conquering Spain and staying for eight centuries”.

Modern Conservative scholars such as Victor Davis Hanson, Bat Ye’or and Robert Spencer suggested that Muslim rule in Spain were despots who subjected people of other faiths to heavy taxation and religious persecution. David Levering Lewis thinks otherwise. This New York University professor places the relationship between Muslim nations and and Europe at the center of his latest book. His book inspires one to re-think the Islamic contribution to Europe.

The biggest accomplishment of Lewis’s book lies in its attempt to challenge conventional thinking regarding the victory of Charles Martel, the leader of the Franks. He rebukes historians such as Edward Gibbons and Victor Davis Hanson for their simplistic views on the Battle of Poitiers:

“Today, Charles Martel’s defeat of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi is buried deep in the collective memory of the West, a marker of an important happening seldom recalled with the hyperbole typical of an earlier, more cultural self-aggrandizing age…However, it probably occurs to few, if any of the contemporary descendants of the “Europenses” to credit the existence of the European Union to the Battle of Poitiers.”

Lewis does an excellent job of asking the question as to what served to create Europe as we know it. He believes that years of Western-dominated thinking on the war have made us blind to the idea that Martel’s victory may have actually hurt Europe of those days by paving the way for an intolerant feudal age. At present times, the re-education Lewis offers us is of vital importance.

For me, the most surprising discovery in Lewis’s book concerns how the struggle between two civilizations actually improved welfare of women. It’s an intriguing premise, since conflict usually means setbacks wherein women’s rights are concerned.

Lewis blames Pope Innocent III and Pope Urban II for ending the long history of co-existence between Arabs, Jews and Christians. He beautifully summarizes the impact of the Pope’s Fourth Lateran Council’s call for wars against unbelievers and heresy:

“Difference, immemorially accommodated for better and worse by Western Europe’s peoples as the way of the world, was institutionalized henceforth as unassailable “otherness”

Lewis’s condemnation of Catholic Church is practically confrontational. He made me wonder whether even the present-day Vatican has the credibility to initiate dialogue with different faiths. In his book, Lewis gives a glimpse of the world of Christendom whose defeat of the Islamic faith slowed down the development of technology, culture, and science. It’s a grim picture, to say the least.

This book makes one consider the possibility that bad luck is likely to befall Europe if it decides to turn away from its Muslim neighbors in Turkey and Morocco. These neighbors may just offer some solutions to the aging crisis of the Great Continent.

The book suffers from a dearth of Spanish and Arabic source materials and a surplus of academic language. Having said that, Lewis still stands well above many colleagues who have tackled similar subjects.

Above all else, God’s Crucible is full of useful information for advocates of inter-faith dialogue; it’s main message is that freedom of exchange of ideas, tolerance of dissidents, and respect for diversity are will make a society prosperous.

We are being driven to accept the two-state solution as the only way to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The logic is simple:

Israel remains a Jewish state; Palestine is going to be independent.

The book, written by an Israeli academic who used to serve as an adviser of Ehud Barak, calls for a deeper re-thinking of the peace settlement. His vision of the future between Israel and Palestine is idealistic, but also, I believe, pragmatic. Instead of seeing peace deals with Palestinians as grace-giving measures, he urges for Israelis to treat Palestinians as equals.

Rather than dismantling all Israeli settlements, which, he argues, is impossible due to the political influence of settlers and heavy costs, he advocates the maintenance of large settlement blocs. Turning to Jerusalem, Klein believes that the division of the city should be based on the historical positions of individual religious sites, while East Jerusalem should be drawn into different districts to ensure villages close to Ramallah will be under direct governance of the future Palestinian state. Villages between Ramallah and the Old City can have their public and social services provided by third parties, for the sake of stability.

Klein portrays the failure of American involvement, which is blindly pro-Israel, as well as the danger of unilateral movement, which inevitably leaves one side bitter. He is deeply invested in the emotional aspects of the conflict, arguing that Jerusalem in particular has tremendous meaning for all parties involved. He discusses Zionism, the abandonment of Palestinian right of return, and the price both sides have had to pay in the ongoing struggle.

I recommend this book to anyone seeking an alternative voice in discussions surrounding the two-state solution.

In Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations, the author envisioned that, after the collapse of communism, the Christian West inevitably would start conflicts with Islam, due to different values, traditions and ideologies. His prediction, seemingly, has become real for lots of people since the attack of 9/11. The Iraq war and the bombings in London in July 2005 have intensified this belief. Religions, which were once becoming irrelevant in our lives, have again proven to be crucial factors in the long negotiation toward some semblance of peace and harmony in the world. The emergence of Islamic fundamentalists and the Christian Right in the United States have made people doubt the very possibility of co-existence.

In his latest book, Zachary Karabell (who obtained his doctorate degree from Columbia and published books on American college education and politics before the previous book on the Suez Canal), tries to present the history of happy co-existence among Muslims, Christians and Jews: from the era of Muhammad till twenty-first century Dubai.

Karabell suggests that the decline of relationships among Muslims, Christians and Jews can be traced back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Western-educated Arab intellectuals imported nationalism into their homes. Zionism, an ideology that began to grow popular after the First World War, further altered the former friendship between Muslims and Jews.

Rather than blaming Muslims for prejudice against Jews and Christians, Karabell asks us to think about the responsibility Christian Europe should bear for recent violence. What caused the departure of European Jews and, therefore, resulted in conflicts between Muslims and Jews? What brought about the plight of Palestinians? For Karabell, it would be easy to point a finger at Arabs, but he believes that without the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust, violence would not plague both Muslims and Jews.

As an example of restoration of harmony between followers of Muhammad and People of the Book, Karabell speaks about the city of Dubai, suggesting that the path to co-existence can be shaped by global-minded business strategy.

Obviously, Karabell understands that this is easier said than done. He illustrates his point by bringing up the enormous voting power of the American Christian Right, whose support was instrumental to the George W. Bush White House. The stronghold of religious parties in the Israeli government is another example he uses.

Karabell’s bibliography is well-stocked, from Turkish and Arabic sources, to publications of English-language conservative scholars, including Robert Spencer and Bat Ye’or. Both Spencer and Ye’or are contributors to Jihad Watch, a famous site, and have been accused of sparking Islamophobia. By going straight to such sources, Karabell has exposed the heart of present religious hostilities.

Chronicling the history of encounters between Islam and the West in the last fourteen hundred years, Karabell attempts to see a path toward peaceful co-existence today. I am not entirely sure that he has found a useful solution to the crises we face. Yet he has delivered a fascinating exploration of the good and bad that is to be found in the expressions of the Abrahamic faiths. There is some hope that we can get along yet, even if some of us continue to believe that killing people is the only answer.

Many volumes on the lives of Israeli and Palestinian politicians, and their involvement in the peace process, have been published. However, there has been too little focus on Arab rulers, leaders in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia – and their roles when it comes to Israel and Palestine.

Enter Avi Shlaim, an Israeli professor of International Relations at Oxford University. Schleim aims to provide an account of King Hussein’s involvement in the quest for peace in one of the most volatile regions in the world. Shlaim is further interested in challenging the conventional view that Israel has long been a victim of Arab aggression – both militarily and diplomatically.

Shlaim’s book stands out due to its use of primary sources; Shlaim interviewed the late Jordanian king in 1996. The interview became the eventual foundation of the book. In contrast with left-wing historians such as Benny Morris, Shlaim brings more personal insight into King Hussein’s views on Israel, Arafat, and Palestinian nationalism. In addition, Shlaim’s interviews with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin create a vivid image of how Israeli leaders viewed the late King.

The book urges the reader to consider who King Hussein really was: a hero (as he is commonly perceived in the West)? Or a puppet? Did King Hussein really want peace for Palestinians, or were personal gains his main aim in the conflict? Considering Jordan’s reliance on foreign aid, saying “yes” to the Western-backed Jewish state next door would appear to have been an easy choice for King Hussein – Shlaim suggests. Shlaim further challenges readers to weigh the cost of making a permanent peace deal with Israel at the expense of freedom of speech and democracy.

Shlaim has succeeded in crafting a largely objective narrative on the life of King Hussein. And it is Shlaim’s belief that this particular ruler could have helped create peace in his lifetime, if the other powers had paid him more genuine attention – though Shlaim is much less charitable when it comes to what he believes to be King Hussein’s failure at modernizing Jordan, and granting more civil and political rights to its citizens.

Steve LeVine has worked as a freelance journalist for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and Newsweek – in places such as the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Drawing on his considerable journalistic experience, he sets out to chronicle the history of the Caspian Sea.

Different characters intersect in the book: Nobel family of Sweden, American middlemen acting on behalf of the Soviet Union to make deals with American and British petroleum companies, oil executives begging their government to pressure Soviet leaders to allow drilling, and Central Asian leaders resisting pressure from Moscow to allow Moscow-supported companies to open the oil fields.

However, the central character of the book is oil. It is, perhaps, the only thing (after changes in regimes in ex-Soviet Union republics) that makes Moscow so determined to reclaim its influence in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, even threatening the destructions of oil drilling sites in these countries if they do not seek the opinion of Moscow before signing deals with Western companies.

LeVine describes Russia as a troublemaker, which has tried to use pipelines built in the Soviet era as leverage to force its former colonies to submit to the former master. However, the Russian attempt to rebuild influence is contained by the Clinton administration, whose policy on Caspian Sea and oil in Central Asia was shaped by Rosemarie Forsythe – who served as the Director of Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs of the National Security Council, and Bill White- the Deputy Secretary of Energy.

The struggle between Russia and the United States for more influence in Central Asia is familiarized by the invocation of the struggle between Britain and Russia in the nineteenth century, when both sides were lobbying Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan to consolidate the supply of oil to the West or to the Russian empire. The competition between two superpowers is a re-play of an old game. It is only natural for Russia to struggle to secure its backyards against the ex-colonies, who are full of hatred on Moscow due to forced abandonment of nomadic lives and migration imposed by Stalin and subsequent leaders and are therefore siding with another major power in the world, LeVine argues.

LeVine questions whether the United States is genuinely interested in bringing freedom and democracy to the region, and whether it is interested in actually monitoring the business practices of American oil firms in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. He believes that the United States helped mobilize support for pro-Western politicians to launch the “color revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia to overthrow pro-Russia governments. However, when it comes to pro-America allies in Central Asia, the commitment to expanding freedom and democracy becomes secondary to strategic interests, LeVine argues. The book exposes the common practice of paying bribes to despotic leaders in the newly independent republics. Yet the book also urges readers to re-examine what constitutes corruption: Should lobbying of American oil companies such as Chevron and Exxon and Mobil in the Congress and Senate on behalf of Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan be considered as offering bribes to Baku and Almaty?

The book relies on several hundred interviews conducted between 1992 and 2007, as well as autobiographical writings of key political players from the United States, the Soviet Union and ex-Soviet republics. The combination of these primary sources provides first-hand views of officials and businessmen going about their deals, and offering their opinions of the future of the Caspian Sea. However, the lack of sources originating in Russian and Central Asian languages greatly limits LeVine’s scope.

On the whole, the book illustrates the history and importance of Caspian Sea through a series of dramas whose character include oilmen, dictatorial leaders of ex-Soviet republics, Russian politicians who have tried to maintain their influence among their neighbors, and government officials of the United States who have worked to expand their influence in the region since the collapse of the communist party in Moscow. The result is the fascinating account of the region, a region which will continue to become increasingly crucial when it comes to the global supply of oil.

, a recent publication that has received praise from the likes of Reza Aslan. This book was a family effort: Dilara co-authored with her son and daughter, Imran and Yasmine Hafiz.

Natalia: When did you first get the idea for this book? Did anything in particular spur you on?

Dilara: First of all, my teenage daughter was browsing in a bookstore and found lots of books for Christian, Jewish, Buddhist youth, even Wiccan youth, but nothing for Muslim teens. Also, my son’s classmates at school taunted him and said that he was in the Taliban – but they basically didn’t understand what the difference between Muslim and Taliban was.

Life as a Muslim in post 9/11 America is challenging to say the least! It’s an uphill battle to counter the stereotypes perpetuated by a xenophobic media whilst simultaneously countering the narrow, intolerant version of Islam perpetuated by some fanatical Muslims and mosques in America! My family decided to take some positive steps to make sure our voice, the voice of Moderate Muslims, was heard – we decided to write a book – entertaining, educational, and empowering for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Hence The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook

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was born. Librarians and educators have welcomed it as a much needed resource to combat ignorance & shatter stereotypes about Muslims in the West.

Natalia: Was it difficult to write such a book? What was the creative process like?

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Dilara: We first sent out a survey in 2002 to over 40 Islamic schools in America to assess teen viewpoints on various issues including: the 5 pillars of Islam, role-models, culture clash, life in post 9/11 America etc. Over 150 responses are included in our book to show the diversity of Muslims in America.

We covered as many important issues as we came up with – we worked on several chapters simultaneously, we all wrote, edited, discussed, and then re-wrote passages – it’s not easy to get 3 different people to agree! But we offer the mainstream, moderate viewpoint without, judging anyone. We always encourage dialogue, further study into Islam, inter-faith dialogue, and so on.

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We start each chapter with a verse from the Quran, which is the starting point for the serious discussion, followed by a more modern way of incorporating the lesson of the verse into your daily life. Each chapter also contains a more light-hearted, ‘fun’ element, – either a quiz, list, do’s & don’t’s, etc. It took us from 2003-2006 to actually write the book, then another year for graphic design, layout, editing, and publishing.

Natalia: How do you answer your strongest detractors?

Dilara: I think the diversity of response exhibits that we’ve struck a chord. The overwhelming response has been positive, from both Muslims and non-Muslims – but there is a disturbing, fundamental element in Islam which seeks to silence diversity of opinion and interpretation – the fact that our book shows the reality of Muslims (ie: – not all the girls in the book wear hijab, just like not all Muslim women in reality wear hijab!). The variety of observance in any faith can upset the more conservative element, but in Islam only God is meant to judge us – we are certainly not meant to judge each other. Kingpin

Natalia: Do you feel that this effort has been scrutinized by non-Muslims? How have non-Muslims, especially those people that you do not know personally, responded to this work so far?

Dilara: Amazingly enough – more non-Muslims are purchasing the book as they are welcoming it as an invaluable resource in schools and libraries. Because the book is non-proselytizing and accessible – non-Muslims like it. It offers them a glimpse into the life of an American Muslim teenager – it’s realistic and down-to-earth, plus it is both entertaining and educational, we think.

Natalia: How have the Muslims responded?

Dilara: Some Muslims feel that they don’t need the book because they already know their religion – but Islam encourages us to continue in our search for knowledge. Lots of Muslims are buying the book to give as a gift to co-workers, their grand-children, neighbors, etc. – so we would be very pleased if it contributes in a small way to promoting a beneficial understanding of Islam as well as dispelling stereotypes about Muslims.

The Butterfly Tattoo psp Natalia: Besides the usual book-promotion stuff, do you do anything specific to reach out to the Muslim youth that this book targets?

Dilara: I think the fact that the book is available in libraries and mainstream bookstores will ensure that it is readily available to Muslim teens who may not be associated with a mosque or do not frequent solely Islamic web stores or websites. We’ve been reviewed in many Muslim and non-Muslim newspapers and magazines, so I do think that teens who are interested are able to learn about the book.

Natalia: This may seem like a stupid question, so feel free to have fun with it: Do you think it’s hard or easy being an American Muslim teenager today? One of the reasons that I ask has to do with the fact that when I interviewed Muslim teenagers, a lot of them made statements such as “I can’t be a good Muslim here, I want to move to Saudi Arabia.” Have you encountered this mentality at all?

Dilara: Wow – great question! Honestly – I think the future of Islam lies in the West – where we truly have freedom to practice an Islam free of cultural influences. I think being a Muslim in the West requires more conscious thought, but that it also inspires us to live fully as Muslims while giving a good example to others. Many Western morals and values are fully compatible with being a Muslim – the notion of social justice, community service, inter-faith dialogue, etc. which sometimes is lacking in Muslim countries. I think there’s less hypocrisy here amongst Muslims.

This is a review of Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present by Michael Oren. W.W. Norton, 2007

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It is believed that America only began to get involved in the affairs of the Middle East after the Suez Crisis in 1956, which caused the decline of the influence of the British in the region. For most people, America intensified its influence after the Yom Kippur war, when Richard Nixon agreed to export American weapons to help Israel defeat Egypt and Syria.

Michael Oren has some different ideas wherein America’s role in the region is concerned. Oren is a historian and author whose latest book aims to help readers understand the motives driving American politicians, Christian leaders, and members of the media, to get involved in Middle Eastern affairs. He also concerns himself with the eternal question of whether or not American involvement is positive or negative.

Modern scholars suggest that the first direct conflict between America and the Islamic world, barring the Hizbollah attack that killed 240 American troops in 1983, was the attack against Saddam Hussein in 1993. Oren challenges this notion. The first conflict between the two civilizations took place from 1776-1815, he asserts. Barbary pirates from Morocco, Libya, and Algeria attacked American business ships and held sailors captive. Oren believes that the decision of James Madison to send dispatches to attack ports in North Africa affirmed American status as a global power. Success in stopping the attacks also boosted American confidence in using force to protect overseas commerce, Oren claims.

The book also rebukes what Oren calls “the myth of the Israel lobby”, which has become a much-debated issue. Oren believes that the American support for Israel is not simply tied to Jewish lobbies, which have been accused of using millions of dollars to influence Washington D.C to establish a pro-Israel policy. Neither, he says, is America pro-Israel due to the work of John Hagee, Pat Roberston, and other right-wing Christians.

The influences of the above preachers and lobbyists are real and cannot be ignored. Yet Oren ultimately offers a different explanation for the seemingly unconditional American support to the Jewish state: which is what Oren describes as a grown-up, realist view of the right of Israel to exist, stemming from American desire to protect Jews from persecution following the pogroms and the Holocaust.

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Oren also suggests that the Arab attacks against Jews, militarily or rhetorical, further serve Israeli interests on the ground. Arab assaults, Oren says, are portrayed as a fundamentalist Islamic jihad against people of different faiths and civilizations, creating an image of Arabs as a people who do not desire peace.

Oren only devotes one section to the history of American attachment to the Middle East after the Second World War. He focuses on a general interpretation on the nature of the U.S – Middle East relations. He is right to predict that the United States will have much more challenges ahead, especially from Iran, as well as the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Overall, Oren finds years of American involvement positive in that modern education and health care are funded and/or encouraged in the region, and in the belief that America is a nation that strives for peace and security for the Middle East.

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses ipod Praise for America’s good intentions is obviously Oren’s most controversial statement. America’s intentions may be as good as Oren claims, but so far, the results are rather mixed (as evidenced by poor political, economical, and educational conditions in many Muslim countries); Oren could have done a better job addressing the present situation.

The Mouse That Roared trailer This book drew upon a wealth of materials from various archives and literature. However, these materials were all written in English, which may have limited the author’s scope. In addition, the book suffers from a lack of source materials on more recent events. Oren claims that it would have been difficult to obtain diverse resources, but the book would provide a more multi-dimensional view of how people in the Middle East perceive American involvement if at least secondhand resources in French, Arabic, or Hebrew were consulted.

Despite such shortcomings, my ultimate pronouncement is that this book is terrific. It is a must-read manual for diplomats and peacemakers who have been puzzled by the “seemingly irrational actions” successive American governments have displayed when Israel-related issues appear at the UN Security Council. It provides a great deal of explanations for the continuous American vetoes on resolutions demanding Israeli withdrawal from West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Oren’s highlighting of the fact that American involvement in the Middle East can be traced back to 1776 is by itself an invaluable reminder of how short our memory can be wherein American foreign policy is concerned. People interested in a refresher course would do well to pick up Oren’s book.

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When it comes to America’s foreign policy, conventional thought suggests that the Americans only started getting engaged in global affairs after the war against Spain for Cuba in 1899. Further involvement in global affairs only took root after the First World War in 1914. And the Second World War finally made America the most influential country in the world.

Robert Kagan desn’t think so. A senior associate of Carnegie Endowment and a well-known neo-conservative, Kagan argues that America has been consolidating its power from the day it was founded: “Americans have often not realized how their expansive tenancies- political, ideological, economics, strategic, and cultural, bump up against and intrude upon other people and cultures…They have not anticipated, therefore, the way their natural expansiveness could provoke reactions, and sometimes violent reactions, against them.” (P.5) – Kagan writes in the introduction.

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The Scarlet Claw download From the beginning, Kagan does a brilliant job of challenging readers. We are urged to change our perceptions and to re-examine our image of America as an isolationist country that remained isolationist until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Kagan suggests that the first American foreign policy, implemented by both the British and settlers in the colony, was the attempt to gain control of French Canada and Louisiana from 1750s till 1820: the Louisiana Purchase. Acquisition of land was the center of foreign policy of American settlers. However, Kagan claims that an official foreign policy document was only issued during the war of independence in 1776: “The Declaration of Independence was also America’s first foreign policy document. To win foreign support-and, above all, French support-in the war against Britain… In practical terms, the Declaration provided the international legal basis for France to lend support if it chose… It (The Declaration of Independence) was to create the legal basis necessary to from alliances with European powers. American independence, from the first, depended on successful diplomacy to secure foreign support.” (P.41-42)

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Valley of the Dolls Kagan challenges the conventional interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. Instead of upholding the declaration as a document including solely the grievances of American settlers against the British Empire, he further explores and discusses the message behind the document: which he believes to be the attempt to establish a diplomatic relationship with a foreign country. This country was France, whose revolution inspired the founding fathers of America; France became the staunchest friend of what later emerged as one of the strongest countries in the world.

Bend It Like Beckham Another event shaping America’s foreign policy, Kagan proposes, is the Civil War of 1861 – 1865. “Slavery shaped American foreign policy, above all, by producing an acute national vulnerability that was recognized in both the North and the South. “ (P.185). The victory of the North, while ending slavery in the South, also affected the foreign policy of Republicans. The civil war reinforced American belief that the United States carried a global mission to liberate people from bondage and dictatorships, Kagan believes. He refers to Lodge, Chairman of Senates Foreign Relations Committee, and Roosevelt to emphasize the impact of the civil war, “Decades after Lincoln defined American nationalism as inherently infused with international moral responsibility, Lodge would insist that for America to fulfill its destiny and become a great power, it would have to accept its global duties.” (P.283)

America’s global mission against bondage derives from the experience of the civil war, Kagan argues.

The final event that consolidated the American foreign policy before the First World War was the war against Spain for Cuba. The desire among American citizens to get involved gave the President, William McKinley, a justification to send troops to launch attacks against Spain. Kagan writes, “The war was so popular because it involved American ideals, American interests, American prejudices and American power. The horrors of the reconcentration policy and three hundred thousand Cuban deaths outraged Americans… That so much human suffering was being inflicted so close to U.S shores seemed intolerable, especially because Americans believed they had the power to do something about it…defending “humanity” and “civilization” was the honorable course and justified military intervention.” (P.407 and P.411).

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At the end of book, Kagan concludes that American foreign policy was “the product of a universialist ideology as articulated in the Declaration of Independence. It reflected Americans’ view themselves, stretching back to before the nation’s founding, as the advanced guard of civilization, leading the way against backward and barbaric nations and empires. It derived from the American experience of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and especially from the experience of the Civil War…The Spanish-American war, in short, an expression of who the American people were and what they had made of their nation.” (P.416)

On the whole, Kagan, despite not discussing whether the North or the South extorted heavier influence on the foundation of America’s foreign policy, cleverly re-envisions the history of one of the most powerful nations in the world. If one went by this book, it would not be surprising that in the future, military intervention against Iran, Sudan, Burma and other countries will occur.

The book of Kagan is a must-read book for anyone trying to understand why America acts as the “Global Police” nowadays.