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Despite the costly efforts of Arab activists and citizens over the past decade of the Arab Uprisings, today no Arab state can claim to be fully democratic. Two countries, Egypt and Tunisia, traveled farthest down the path towards democracy, and Tunisia witnessed ten years of democratic elections–but today neither country protects the rights of citizens […]
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Deadlock following Iraq’s October 10th, 2021 elections shows that control over the security forces remains the country’s most important political issue. The parliamentary block led by Shia politician and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr won a clear plurality of seats. However, a bloc of Iran-backed parties refuses to allow them to form a government. At the […]
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In both academia and the media, a well-known perception is that Christianity essentially embraces religion-state separation whereas Islam essentially rejects it. Defenders of this perception provide some textual evidences. To show religion-state separation in Christianity, they quote a Biblical phrase, “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are […]
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Amid widespread and often heated contemporary debates about an existential ‘clash’ between the ‘Islamic World’ and the ‘Christian West’, there is growing evidence that Arabic-Muslim women are already playing much more influential roles in their societies and national economies. My recent book, A Quiet Revolution: the Rise of Women managers, Business Owners and Leaders in […]
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In this book, economist Jean-Philippe Platteau addresses the question: does Islam, the religion of Muslims, bear some responsibility for a lack of economic development in the countries in which it dominates?
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My recent book, Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, addresses one of the big questions in economics and economic history: why did the modern economy emerge when and where it did? Specifically, why did the modern economy emerge in northwestern Europe at some point in the […]
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