Middle East Studies Specialists Get It Wrong [on Bruce K. Rutherford]

An occasional series of bloopers.

1. Bruce K. Rutherford, associate professor of political science at Colgate University, published a book titled Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World. The publisher informs us that the study

draws upon in-depth interviews with Egyptian judges, lawyers, Islamic activists, politicians, and businesspeople. It also utilizes major court rulings, political documents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the writings of Egypt’s leading contemporary Islamic thinkers.

Bruce Rutherford examines the political and ideological battles that drive Egyptian politics and shape the prospects for democracy throughout the region. He argues that secularists and Islamists are converging around a reform agenda that supports key elements of liberalism, including constraints on state power, the rule of law, and protection of some civil and political rights. But will this deepening liberalism lead to democracy? And what can the United States do to see that it does? In answering these questions, Rutherford shows that Egypt’s reformers are reluctant to expand the public’s role in politics. This suggests that, while liberalism is likely to progress steadily in the future, democracy’s advance will be slow and uneven.

Whoops. (July 3, 2013)

Daniel Pipes, a historian, has led the Middle East Forum since its founding in 1994. He taught at Chicago, Harvard, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Naval War College. He served in five U.S. administrations, received two presidential appointments, and testified before many congressional committees. The author of 16 books on the Middle East, Islam, and other topics, Mr. Pipes writes a column for the Washington Times and the Spectator; his work has been translated into 39 languages. DanielPipes.org contains an archive of his writings and media appearances; he tweets at @DanielPipes. He received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. The Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” Al-Qaeda invited Mr. Pipes to convert and Edward Said called him an “Orientalist.”
See more from this Author
The Trump Administration Has Not Ended Foreign Aid, but Questions Whether It Serves the American Taxpayer
Trump Should Consider the Factors Involved Before Spontaneously Threatening Foreign Policy Changes
Israelis Widely Agreed in the Aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Massacre That Hamas Had to Be Destroyed. Some 16 Months Later, However, Hamas Remains a Powerful Institution
See more on this Topic
Haddad’s Schmooze Fest with Palestinian Islamic Jihad Financier and Islamist Operative Sami al-Arian Shows His Inability to Discern Scholarship from Activism
While Money from Muslim Nations Is Part of the Jihad Problem on American College Campuses, a Bigger Problem Is the Faculty Who Teach There
Not Even Jews Facing a Recent Organized Pogrom in Amsterdam Received His Complete Sympathy