Bad Moon Rising: A Chronicle of the Middle East Today

by Gilles Kepel

Leading expert on Islam and Islamism, Kepel, returned to the Middle East as New York struggled with the shock and the dust of the aftermath of September 11. This is his dispatch from history's most contentious region.

Genres: Middle East

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2002

About the author

A French scholar and analyst of the Islamic and the Arab world. He has written works on Radical Islam including Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. He was the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for 2009-10 at LSE IDEAS (Centre for Diplomacy & Strategy, at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Kepel has previously been a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York. He speaks Arabic, French, English and Italian.

Kepel's work has stirred intense debates in the French academia. His analyses of political Islam have notably been criticized by Olivier Roy, François Burgat and Alain Roussillon. These 3 authors however are also quite controversial, with secularists like Caroline Fourest or Mohamed Sifaoui being particularly critical of Roy and Burgat's sympathy towards islamists.

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent popular (through the eyes of a scholar) look at the Middle East and Islamism. Though seriously, who picked that title?!