Book Reviews

Fall 2026 Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Desert Imaginations: A History of Saharanism and Its Radical Consequences
By Brahim El Guabli. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2025. 300 pp.; $95.00 (hardcover); $34.95 (paperback)

Book Review by Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy
By Dalia Dassa Kaye. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2025. 236 pp.; $60.00 (hardcover)

Book Review by Sophie Baron
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan
By Aaron Magid. Irvine & Boca Raton: Universal Publishers, 2025. 254 pp.; $29.95 (paperback); $9.99 (Kindle)

Book Review by Asher Susser
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan
By Suzy Hansen. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026. 368 pp. $30.00 (hardcover)

Book Review by Robert Ellis
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
The New Age of Genocide: Intellectual and Political Challenges After Gaza
By Martin Shaw. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing, 2025. 224 pp.; $110 (hardcover); $29.95 (paperback).

Book Review by A. J. Caschetta
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
No Compulsion in Religion—No Exceptions: Islamic Arguments for Religious Freedom.
Edited by Mustafa Akyol. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2026. 184 pp.; $24.95 (hardcover).

Review by Dexter Van Zile
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
Israel on Trial: Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law.
By Roy K. Altman. Charleston, S.C.: Advantage Books, 2026, 304 pp.; $32.00 (hardcover), $9.99 (Kindle).

Reviewed by Judith Friedman Rosen
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
Beyond Dialogue: Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims
By Craig Considine. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2025. 256 pp.; $69.95 (hardback); $24.95 (paperback)

Book Review by Mark Durie
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
Saudi Arabia: A Modern History
By David Commins. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025. 384 pp.; $28.99 (hardcover); $16.99 (Kindle)

Book Review by Jacob Goldberg
September 1, 2026
Book Reviews
A Daring Enterprise: A U.S.-Egyptian Partnership and the Case for Soft Power
By James A. Harmon, Cornelius Queen, and Mark Warren. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2026. 240 pp.; $35.00 (hardcover)

Book Review by Patrick Clawson
September 1, 2026
More from MEF
At a 25 September 2019 U.N. hate-speech forum Turkey co-hosted with Pakistan on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked, “In India, how will we defend Muslim youth who are being whipped, beaten by machetes and even sentenced to death just for eating beef?” Image: Erdoğan speaks to a political rally in Istanbul, March 24, 2024.
Middle East Forum Online
Could India Face a Sectarian Civil War?
Turkey Believes It Can Spark a Sectarian Crisis and Then Leverage U.N. Diplomacy to Empower Indian Muslims to Further Divide the Country
October 31, 2026
 · 
Michael Rubin
Outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Middle East Forum Observer
No Turk Should Lead the U.N. or Any International Organization Until Cyprus Occupation Ends
By Pushing a Turk for the Position, Erdoğan Seeks to Extend His Policy Reach and Implement His Ideological Program
October 31, 2026
 · 
Michael Rubin
Turkish and Somali miltary commanders stand on the shoreline of the Indian Ocean in Mogadishu, Sonalia.
Middle East Forum Observer
Turkey’s Political Games in Somalia Risk Breathing New Life into Al-Shabaab
As Mogadishu Fights Its Political Rivals, Al-Shabaab Recovers Territory in Central Somalia
October 31, 2026
 · 
Siyad Madey
For most of its history, the Muslim Brotherhood, the transnational Islamist movement and the pioneer of political Islam, was a subject for regional experts and academics. It has now become a subject of American policy and politics. Yet, most Americans who hear the name have no clear idea of what it describes.
Middle East Forum Online
The Muslim Brotherhood: What It Is and Why It Threatens the United States
The Brotherhood Is at Once an Organization That Can Be Designated and a Worldview That Cannot
October 30, 2026
 · 
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City; September 24, 2026.
Middle East Forum Online
Netanyahu Defies Exit Polls to Take Lead in Israeli Election — What It Means for Iran War
The Prime Minister Has Long Pushed to Topple Mullahs in the Islamic Republic
October 30, 2026
 · 
Benjamin Weinthal
Belize abruptly severed diplomatic ties with Israel on November 14, 2023, withdrawing its agrément for the ambassador-designate and freezing all honorary consulates.
Middle East Forum Online
Belize Slams Israel, Ignores Hezbollah in Corozal
Jerusalem and Washington Must Start Treating Corozal as a Critical Logistical Node Rather than a Venue for Symbolic Grievance
October 30, 2026
 · 
Jose Lev Alvarez
this national election is also the first legislative vote conducted in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 assault and the prolonged multi-front conflict that subsequently expanded across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran
Middle East Forum Observer
Five Takeaways of Qatar’s Alleged Election Interference Inside Israel
A Knesset Member Said in August That the Israeli Arab Parties Would ‘Put Israeli Democracy to a Test’
October 30, 2026
 · 
Richard Pollock
A bronze statue of Cyrus the Great in Tajikistan.
Middle East Forum Observer
Iran’s War Is Also a War Over History
Leaders Who Invoke the past Must Engage Its Full Trajectory, Rather than Selecting Convenient Fragments
October 30, 2026
 · 
Davood Moradian
Alexandria, Egypt, has strong cultural, trade, and demographic ties with Greece.
Middle East Forum Observer
Turkey’s Libya Gains Expose the Limits of Greek-Egyptian Cooperation
Egypt Cares About Libya’s Stability but Focuses on Maintaining Influence, While Greece Faces Challenges to Its Sovereignty
October 30, 2026
 · 
Nicoletta Kouroushi
Press Releases
Michigan Pulpits Call America ‘the House of Satan’
Forum Calls on Michigan Officials to Stop Funding and Honoring These Institutions Until They Review What Is Preached There, and on Every State and Washington to Ask the Same Questions
October 29, 2026