At the time Tambar wrote The Reckoning of Pluralism, there was a briefopening in Turkish political life during which ethnic and sectarian pluralitywas both imaginable and debatable. This opening, initiated by the ruling AKP,attempted to create an official conversation about the Alevis and the Kurds.This move indicated that those who have state power were willing...Read More

Anthropologist Karin van Nieuwkerk’s latest book-length study addresses thephenomenon, widely discussed in Egyptian media since the 1990s, of celebratedsingers, actors, and dancers who withdraw from their professions to liveaccording to what they believe are Islamically sound principles. The author of“A Trade Like Any Other”: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt (Austin:University of Texas Press, 1995),...Read More

Mohd Kamal Hassan’s Voice of Islamic Moderation from the Malay Worldpresents a selection of eleven essays written over the past decade in responseto the challenges from a globalization steeped in the post-9/11 climate. Intendedmainly for a non-Muslim audience, it seeks to represent the voice ofIslamic moderation (al-wasaṭīyah) from the multi-ethnic, multi-religiousMalaysian context. One hopes that...Read More

This book is an interesting exposition of the reform discourse and reformironies in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia … a country ambivalent in itssense of security and insecurity, content in its presumed “orthodoxy,” uncertainabout where it fits in this world and about its future, and unsure as to whatextent it can continue to linger...Read More