CCR’s engagement with the Middle East has covered both contemporary geopolitics and the long civilizational history of the region. Joseph Drew’s “Collective Wisdom and Civilization: Revitalizing Ancient Wisdom Traditions” in v72 includes chapters on “The End of Modern History in the Middle East,” “Propaganda in the Middle East,” “Iran: Haman or Cyrus,” and “The New Anti-Semitism — First Religion, Then Race, Then What?” Drew frames Iran as a question of civilizational choice between the Persian imperial tradition of Cyrus the Great and the religious-totalitarian tradition associated with Haman in the Book of Esther.

In v79, “Civilizational Solutions for Relations Between the Middle East and the West — Religious Commonalities Rather Than Sharia Differences” argues that civilizational dialogue between the Middle East and the West should be grounded in religious commonalities rather than in sharia differences.

In v85, Ardavan Khoshnood’s letter to the editor “The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins” engages the Pahlavi dynasty and the Iranian civilizational tradition.

Farzana Hassan’s Unveiled: A Canadian Muslim Woman’s Struggle Against Misogyny, Sharia and Jihad (Freedom Press, 2012) and Wafa Sultan’s A God Who Hates (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009) are reviewed in v75 by Laina Farhat-Holzman.

Source summaries:

  • v72 (Spring 2015) — Joseph Drew, “Collective Wisdom and Civilization: Revitalizing Ancient Wisdom Traditions.” (v72)
  • v75 (Fall 2016) — Reviews of Farzana Hassan’s Unveiled and Wafa Sultan’s A God Who Hates. (v75)
  • v79 (Fall 2018) — “Civilizational Solutions for Relations Between the Middle East and the West — Religious Commonalities Rather Than Sharia Differences.” (v79)
  • v85 (Fall 2021) — Ardavan Khoshnood, “The Pahlavis and the Other Side of the Coins.” (v85)