The Crescent and the Flag

Take four Arab-Israeli wars and the still-raging Palestinian intifada. Combine them with several oil crises that shook the foundations of the industrial world. Next, add the grim consequences of a Shi’ite-dominated revolution in Iran and the frenzied world-wide Muslim reaction to Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Blend in bloody civil wars in major African countries such as Nigeria and Sudan, where dominant Muslim tribal groups and ruling factions have been directly responsible for the slaughter or starvation of millions of their non-Muslim fellow citizens. Top it all off with the seemingly endless cycle of mayhem and kidnapping in Lebanon, and it comes as little surprise that Western concern about – if not understanding of – Islam and Islamic nationalism has reached a new high in the closing years of the twentieth century.