Political Geography: United States / Journal: The National Interest

Author:: H. W. Brands
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Institution:: Center for the National Interest
Abstract:: "EVERYONE IS entitled to his own opinion," Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "but not to his own facts." Samuel Butler, the nineteenth-century English author, wrote that "though God cannot alter the past, historians can."
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States and Canada

Author:: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Institution:: Center for the National Interest
Abstract:: AMERICA'S BLOODY encounter with Islam is a failure. At heart there is an inability to understand the context and dynamics of Arab and Muslim politics; the conceptual differences and boundaries between moderate Islamists, nonviolent radical activists, local jihadists and global jihadists like al-Qaeda. For eight years, the dominant U.S. narrative blurred the lines between "Islamist," "radical," "militant," "extremist," "jihadist" and "terrorist." The United States equated Islamists' offensive speech with jihadists' violent action. But there are stark differences between locally and regionally based political groups like Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah and borderless, transnational and globalized jihadist groups like al-Qaeda that have been waging war against the United States and its close allies since the mid-1990s.
Topic:: Islam
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, and Palestine

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