A few years ago, I wrote a review/commentary on The Road from Morocco, a thrilling account by Wafa Faith Hallam, a young, modern Moroccan woman who leads a truly quixotic…
Book Reviews
The Past and Future of Israel
The moment I heard about Ari Shavit’s book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, I hastened to get a copy, then another one when I joyfully shared…
Whence the Koran?
Much of what Muslims believe is unique to the faith—such as Mohammed being the seal of prophets or besieged believers falling asleep for centuries in a cave—are ideas taken from…
Jesus and the Fate of Civilizations
The image of Jesus that emerges, somewhat hazily, from Reza Aslan’s new book, Zealot, reminded me of an annotated headshot of Osama bin Laden that appeared in the December 2001…
Humans Without Gods
For many years now, I have shared my utter amazement at how human beings living in the 20th and 21st centuries could still believe that the gods of the Bible…
Terry Eagleton Reads America
There are few more delightful moments than walking with the pugilistic literary and cultural critic Terry Eagleton, the Marxist theorist who always speaks his mind as he sees fit. In…
Islam Without Hadith?
I finally got to reading Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol’s book, Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty (2011). It is a well-researched book, very smart, and daring in a…
The Internet Galaxy
To round up my reflections on the computer age, I read Manuel Castells’s reflections on the impact of the Internet on our lives and the future of humanity itself. Castells’s…