In Europe, the increasing presence of Islam has often provoked concerns about a threat to security and liberal democracy. Jonathan Laurence’s The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims challenges these ideas and shows how the transformation of a new generation into European Muslims has consisted of a complex mix of achievements and tensions. The book recently received a terrific review in The Economist. Jonathan was kind enough to answer a few questions about his unique look at European Islam, the debates surrounding it, and the connection to the Arab awakening:

Q: Anders Breivik was recently declared insane by the court. His act of violence is widely condemned, but aren’t his anti-multiculturalist views fairly widespread?

For Breivik, the year is 1683 and an Islamic empire is storming the Gates of Vienna. Some of the views in his Internet-age manifesto are popular, although what he did in Oslo and Utoya is of course condemned. An Italian politician from a party in government spoke approvingly of the Norwegian’s belief that Europe had “given up on its cultural identity without a fight.” In December, a poll showed 76% of the French public thinks Islam is “progressing too much.” So the vocal concern over Islam’s growth and Muslims’ integration is no longer the exclusive domain of the far right. It has become ritual for heads of government to declare the failure of multiculturalism, a catchall description increasingly taken to mean the arrival of Muslims in Europe. Breivik may be legally insane, but he is not alone in thinking that Europe is at a turning point vis-à-vis its growing Islamic minorities.

Timur Kuran, author of ‘The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law
Held Back the Middle East’ was a guest on BBC World Service The Forum on Sunday.

The programme asked three distinguished Professors of Economics for their views on how to solve the
current economic crisis. Other guests were Danny Quah from London School
of Economics and Lord Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy
at Warwick University. The programme is available to listen to from this
link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00lzhr8

This weekend, Scheherazade, a film by Yousry Nasrallah, will open at the Riverside Theater in New York. Though this film is set in modern Egypt, it relies on the very old art of storytelling and conjures the persona of the queen of this art form — Scheherazade. According to this review in Variety, the film uses the narrated stories of several women to probe larger questions about women’s oppression and sexuality in politically repressive states.

This film will be shown in limited release which means only a lucky few in NY and LA get to see it for now. So, for those of you interested in the culture of story-telling and Scheherazade, we recommend picking up a copy of Whatever Gets You through the Night by Andrei Codrescu. Hailed by critics as an imaginative re-telling of portions of the original Arabian Nights, it also probes the culture of story-telling in ancient and contemporary times. Read a sample chapter here.

FACT: Following the Amarna period of the new Kingdom, around 1200 BCE, Egyptians invented a simple device known as the shaduf, which, using a fulcrum, lifted a water bag that enabled cultivators to irrigate the lands from the spring and summer low-water nile. Shadufs made it possible to grow winter crops, such as cotton and additional cereals.

Egypt: A Short History
Robert L. Tignor

Egypt: A Short History is a sweeping, colorful, and concise narrative history of Egypt from the beginning of human settlement in the Nile River valley 5000 years ago to the present day. Accessible, authoritative, and richly illustrated, this is an ideal introduction and guide to Egypt’s long, brilliant, and complex history for general readers, tourists, and anyone else who wants a better understanding of this vibrant and fascinating country, one that has played a central role in world history for millennia—and that continues to do so today.

“Robert L. Tignor’s ambitious Egypt: A Short History stretches from the Predynastic age to the present, tying the various periods together in a continuous 5,000-year narrative to create a lengthy history told in a short book. . . . Tignor writes with an easy, assured style, and his history becomes more focused and more authoritative as it progresses. He tells us it was conceived as an alternative guidebook for discerning tourists wishing to learn about more than just pyramids and pharaohs: as such—as an enjoyable book written by someone who clearly knows and loves Egypt and the Egyptians—it serves its purpose very well.”—Financial Times

“This is a masterpiece. In simple and accessible prose, Robert Tignor builds on his long and deep familiarity with Egyptian history, politics, and economy. The reader comes away with an understanding of what propels Egyptian history over the ages, and an appreciation of the key questions that beleaguer modern Egypt. This book will be of enormous value for general readers, students, and tourists.”—Khaled Fahmy, New York University

We invite you to read Chapter 1 here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9274.pdf

The Arabian Nights stories may be far more controversial than you ever imagined.

In an interview on WPR, author Andrei Codrescu and Professor Reza Aslan talk about the interesting origins of the Arabian Nights stories. According to Aslan, the story of 1001 Nights were originally translated into the English language in the Victorian era to serve as sex manuals for repressed British men, much in the way that the Kama Sutra is considered by some today. His article of the Arabian Nights stories as “Islamic Erotica” appeared in Playboy Magazine. (Excerpts from that article can be found here.)

Codrescu notes that the Arabian Nights stories are interesting because their original author is unknown. As such they have been revised and rewritten by generations of authors and editors, changing the message (and degree of eroticism) of the tales. Codrescu also insists that the oral nature of the stories play an important role in their seductive effect. They are by definition never ending–Sheherezade depends on her skill as a story teller to stay alive–and thus are written (or spoken) to continually arouse curiosity and interest in the reader (or listener).

Both experts agree that the fantastic and exotic nature of the stories are what have drawn centuries of readers to the Arabian Nights stories. Even the Disney classic Aladdin was derived from one of Sheherezade’s many tales. The interview explores the stories’ connections to everything from historical figures who may have inspired the characters in 1001 Nights to the current “erotic” events that fascinate the public today (Congressman Weiner, for example). Take a listen to this educational and entertaining interview here, and check out Codrescu’s take on the famous story in Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments.

Bruce Rutherford must be clairvoyant. We published Egypt after Mubarak in 2008 and now, two years later, reality is finally catching up. What will Egypt look like after Mubarak’s presidency? This is the question on everyone’s minds and Bruce’s book offers a (at least according to Fareed Zakaria) “fascinating and timely” perspective on recent events.

Bruce Rutherford teaches at Colgate University and the communications team there recently posted this great notice about Bruce and the book.

In recent days, Bruce has been a go-to media commentator for the Bloomberg News, National Post, and Deutsche-Welle.

If you would like to hear more from Bruce, check out these interviews with Bloomberg TV’s Taking Stock and CBC’s Homestretch.

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In this op-ed from USA Today, PUP author Thomas Kidd writes:

The fact that nearly 20% of Americans say that President Obama is a Muslim has certainly not kept him from talking to Muslims. Just in the past week, the president gave his second major address to the Muslim world, and issued greetings to Muslims for Eid-ul-Adha, the celebration of Abraham’s “willingness to sacrifice his son.” Even in this small act of presidential courtesy, however, Obama had to tread very carefully. Note that the administration did not include the name of Abraham’s son. Muslims believe that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Ishmael, while the Jewish and Christian Scriptures contend that it was Isaac — indeed, this is one of the most fundamental divergences between these religious traditions. The president wants to acknowledge the Muslim holiday, without exacerbating religious tensions.

Using this celebration as a point of entry, Kidd discusses the need for the president to stand up to would-be terrorists while maintaining lines of communication with the Muslim community, all as he continues to battle mis-information about his own religious beliefs. Kidd identifies this as a “nearly impossible balance” to achieve.

Kidd is an expert on the fraught relationship between America and Islam going back to the colonial times. His book with Princeton University Press, American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism, provides an essential history through which we can understand current debates about Islam in America.

With the recent discovery of an ancient statue of King Amenhotep III (grandfather of King Tutankhamun), you may want to learn more about Egypt’s fascinating history. We invite you to read chapter one of Robert L. Tignor’s new book, Egypt: A Short History.

This is a sweeping, colorful, and concise narrative history of Egypt from the beginning of human settlement in the Nile River valley 5000 years ago to the present day. Accessible, authoritative, and richly illustrated, this is an ideal introduction and guide to Egypt’s long, brilliant, and complex history for general readers, tourists, and anyone else who wants a better understanding of this vibrant and fascinating country, one that has played a central role in world history for millennia–and that continues to do so today.

Respected historian Robert Tignor, who has lived in Egypt at different times over the course of five decades, covers all the major eras of the country’s ancient, modern, and recent history. This book provides an indispensable key to Egypt in all its layers–ancient and modern, Greek and Roman, and Christian and Islamic.

Read chapter one online:
Egypt: A Short History
By Robert L. Tignor
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9274.html

Ziba Mir-Hosseini, well-known Islamic feminist and author of Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran, recently participated in a question-and-answer session with Yoginder Sikand. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

In recent years, a number of Muslim women’s groups have emerged across the world, struggling for gender equality and justice using Islamic arguments. Most of them are led by women who come from elitist or, at least middle class, backgrounds. Many of them seem to lack a strong popular base. How do you account for this?

Ziba Mir-Hosseini: I think the majority of the women who are writing and publishing about what is popularly called ‘Islamic feminism’ are definitely from the elite or the middle class… I believe that Islamic feminism is, in a sense, the unwanted child of ‘political Islam’. It was ‘political Islam’ that actually politicized the whole issue of gender and Muslim women’s rights. The slogan “back to the shariah” so forcefully pressed by advocates of political Islam in practice meant seeking to return to the classical texts on fiqh, or Muslim jurisprudence, and doing away with various laws advantageous to women that had no sanction in the Islamists’ literalist understanding of Islam.

Click here to read the rest of Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Yoginder Sikand’s conversation.

If you guessed General Petraeus, you are correct! See this great short article from Reuters for more.

After travels all over the world, Tom Barfield is finally venturing to the state of New Jersey to give a lecture at Stockton College. Details below — hope you can make it.

“Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History”
Thomas Barfield

Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Townsend Residential Life Center, Stockton College, Pomona, NJ

Thomas Barfield, author of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History will give a lecture at The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University on September 16th. Details below.