In the United States, the Middle East is almost always presented as a problem to be solved—most significantly, the problem…
Democracy and the secular predicament
minority rights
Minority matters
Trenchantly framed as “a minority report,” Saba Mahmood’s Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report offers more than just…
Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report—An introduction
It is no exaggeration to say that the religious diversity that characterized the Middle East for centuries is in precipitous…
Human rights and the Arab Spring
The New York Review of Books' blog recently posted a debate between women's rights groups and Human Rights Watch entitled,…
“Traditionalist” Islamic activism
At the time of the 9/11 attacks, commentators trying to analyze Afghan support for Al-Qaeda put a great deal of…
Saba Mahmood on religious freedom and the Middle East
On October 4, Saba Mahmood spoke at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs on "Politics of Religious…
Skyping secularism: Religion and democracy
At the end of our last post (an extension of our discussions at the IWM Summer School in Cortona), we…