Arab & Islamic Politics

Turkey is not thought of as the Muslim country par excellence, but Turkey is, perhaps, the most Muslim nation in the world. Due to its unique birth during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, as a state forged exclusively by and for Muslims through blood and war, Turkey is a

This is the third of a three-part series on Egypt's political future. PolicyWatch #1717 discusses the country's upcoming parliamentary elections, while Policy Watch #1718 addresses Egypt's use of constitutional and executive power. Recognizing that the Egyptian regime has set the stage for an undemocratic father-son transition, nearly one million Egyptians

In a speech this October at the national conference on "soft war" in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized that, "there are many interpretations of Islam, but [the] basis for our practice is the Iranian interpretation. The historical experience proves that the Iranian interpretation of the truth is the closest one

This is the second of a three-part series on Egypt's political future. Read part one and part three. The Egyptian regime has used constitutional amendments to consolidate its power vis-a-vis the "loyal opposition" and to fend off independent bids for the presidency. The amendments have also closed off all legal

Turkey may be the most Muslim nation in the world. It was forged through blood and war as a state exclusively by and for Muslims -- a claim it shares only with Pakistan. Fleeing persecution in Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus, millions of Turkish and non-Turkish Muslims settled there, and

The demise of Turkey's secular parties in the past decade is an example of what happens to an eye one does not use: It stops functioning properly. This is precisely what happened to the secular parties in Turkey. These factions ruled the country until 2002, when the Justice and Development

The October 27 death of a long-serving Arab ruler in an obscure Persian Gulf sheikhdom has the potential to alter the tense relationship between the region's Arab states and Iran, while also testing the ruling style and adaptability of hereditary, quasimonarchical Arab states. Tiny but strategically situated Ras al-Khaimah, part

Now that even the tolerant, liberal Swedes have elected an anti-Islam party to their Parliament, it's pretty clear that such controversies are mounting because both the left and the right are confused over the politics of Islam. The left is wrongly defending Islamism -- an extremist and at times violent

For a generation, Prince Bandar bin Sultan was Riyadh's man in Washington. As the Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005, he was even dubbed "Bandar Bush" for his close ties to that powerful American political dynasty. After leaving Washington, apparently burned out, he returned to Saudi