The general goal of my Introduction to Political Studies class is for students to develop the capacity to think critically and insightfully about political reality. Thus, they…
The fourth and final subfield I cover in my Introduction to Political Studies class is Comparative Politics. This subfield is the most problematic and difficult for two…
The Quran Problem and Islamism. Salim Mansur. Mantua Books, 2017. Salim Mansur writes as a self-described “dissident Muslim,” which he defines as “someone who either critically…
Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance Without Liberalism. Jeremy Menchik. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Islam and Democracy explains Indonesian Islamic organizations’ vision for tolerance without…
"What is happening in the Muslim world is not so much an outburst of fanaticism as a frantic last-ditch effort to ward off the specter of -…
Michael Cook, the Editor of MercatorNet, has kindly invited me to make some comments on a new book of mine, On Islam: A Chronological Record, 2002-2018. Several…
The many horrifying actions undertaken under the auspices of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) are well known to almost all who don’t deliberately avoid news reporting, so…
Éric Voegelin et l’Orient: Millénarisme et religions politiques de l’Antiquité à Daech. Renaud Fabbri. Editions L'Harmattan, 2016. Renaud Fabbri is a professor of political science at l’Université…
In the summer issue of 1993 the journal Foreign Affairs published an article by Samuel Huntington under the title “The Clash of Civilizations?” whose themes he enlarged…
Introduction The American debate regarding the policy needed to combat the dangers posed by immigration from nations who are currently hotbeds of Islamic radicalization is presently being…
What Is Enlightenment? Continuity or Rupture in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings. Mohammed D. Cherkaoui, ed. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2016. Among the three projects of…
And in this war, we’re countering the terrorist’s dark and hateful ideology by offering a more hopeful vision – and that’s one based on freedom . .…
Beyond Radical Secularism: How France and the Christian West Should Respond to the Islamic Challenge. Pierre Manent. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2016. I have…
Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education. Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. Several years ago in Bucharest…
The foundation for a Voegelinian understanding of 21st-century jihadism has been laid by Michael Franz and Barry Cooper, Franz’s work in relation to modern ideology in general,…