Do contemporary Islamist movements trace their roots to Nazi Germany? Paul Berman and Jeffrey Herf argue that to say no is to ignore reality. Marc Lynch responds, and suggests that focusing on such links ignores the real fault lines in political Islam today.
In The Flight of the Intellectuals, Paul Berman argues that it is not violent Islamists who pose the greatest danger to liberal societies in the West but rather their so-called moderate cousins, such as Tariq Ramadan. Such a reading of contemporary Islamism, however, misses the many nuances of the movement and the real battles between reformers and Salafists.
U.S. troops in Iraq may guarantee security, but they will not bring about political reconciliation, the key to stability.
In this special web-only supplement, Christopher Hitchens, Fred Kaplan, Kevin Drum, and Marc Lynch respond to the roundtable, "What to Do in Iraq."
Lynch's postscript to his September/October 2003 essay "Taking Arabs Seriously."
The Bush administration's tone-deaf approach to the Middle East reflects a dangerous misreading of the nature and sources of Arab public opinion. Independent, transnational media outlets have transformed the region, and the administration needs to engage the new Arab public sphere that has emerged.
