Volume 56, Number 8 · May 14, 2009
Living with Islam
By Ian Buruma
Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East
by Gilles Kepel, translated from the French by Pascale Ghazaleh
Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 328 pp., $27.95
La Peur des barbares: Au-delà du choc des civilisations [Fear of the Barbarians: Beyond the Clash of Civilizations]
by Tzvetan Todorov
Paris: Robert Laffont, 312 pp., €20.00 (paper)
In the general cacophony of more or less (usually less) informed opinions on the challenges posed by radical Islam to liberal values, or, as some would put it, 'Western civilization,' a few voices stand out for their clarity, scholarship, and good sense. Some of the most cogent happen to be French. There are several possible reasons for this. France once ruled over a large number of North African Muslims, many of whose descendants now live in France. Also, modern France, more than any other European nation, is based on a set of ideas. French national identity, at least in theory, is defined not by ethnic loyalties but by a political idea of citizenship, an idea that includes acceptance of French language and culture. This encourages an intellectual approach to questions of belonging, which calls for open minds.
Review, 4034 words
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