Description
A lucid and compelling case for a new American stance toward the Islamic world.
What comes after jihad? Outside the headlines, believing Muslims are increasingly calling for democratic politics in their undemocratic countries. But can Islam and democracy successfully be combined? Surveying the intellectual and geopolitical terrain of the contemporary Muslim world, Noah Feldman proposes that Islamic democracy is indeed viable and desirable, and that the West, particularly the United States, should work to bring it about, not suppress it. Encouraging democracy among Muslims threatens America's autocratic Muslim allies, and raises the specter of a new security threat to the West if fundamentalists are elected. But in the long term, the greater threat lies in continuing to support repressive regimes that have lost the confidence of their citizens. By siding with Islamic democrats rather than the regimes that repress them, the United States can bind them to the democratic principles they say they support, reducing anti-Americanism and promoting a durable peace in the Middle East. After Jihad gives the context for understanding how the many Muslims who reject religious violence see the world after the globalization of democracy. It is also an argument about how American self-interest can be understood to include a foreign policy consistent with the deeply held democratic values that make America what it is. At a time when the encounter with Islam has become the dominant issue of U.S. foreign policy, After Jihad provides a road map for making democracy work in a region where the need for it is especially urgent.Author: Noah Feldman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 05/03/2004
Pages: 260
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780374529338
ISBN10: 0374529337
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | Political Ideologies | Democracy
- Religion | Islam | History
- Political Science | History & Theory | General
About the Author
Noah Feldman is a professor at the NYU School of Law. A former Supreme Court clerk, he earned a doctorate in Islamic thought from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
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