Gillian Clark, Christianity and Roman Society - Huntington University

BOOK REVIEWS 127
faith and a way out of the dead-end politics that has paralyzed their countries of origin (8-
9).
As this viewpoint suggests, Kepel is in the vanguard of those promoting a vision of
European Muslims socially integrated into their host societies and firm in their
democratic convictions. He sees a European-oriented Turkey as one of the best examples
where “processes of democratization within an Islamic context are taking place.” Kepel
has taken to describing the need from a “new Andalusia of thoughts,” referring to the
supposedly peaceful and productive multicultural region of medieval Spain (at the 2005
conference on pluralism).
Despite the vagueness of the recommendation, it resonates with European
experience—fresh from the riots in France—better than American neoconservative
preconceptions about democracy and the use of power do. At this point CFH readers
might bring convictions of Christian belief to bear. Even if one ignores the big, perennial
issue of Christianity’s relationship to modern democratic movements, questions remain.
Does Christian belief support one vision of Islamic democratization over the other?
Kepel’s recommendation leaves unclear where power will rest in this “new Andalusia.”
Will it be possible to extend the “secular space” beyond its current place within
historically Christian societies to include Islam, with its different experience of that
space? And this question leads to a preeminent one for Christians and Muslims: what role
can and should religion play? What place does Christian faith have in this multicultural
arrangement, whatever the final form of that arrangement?
Gilles Kepel’s The War for Muslim Minds is an important contribution to ideas
about Middle Eastern democratization. Still unresolved, however, is the viability of
Kepel’s political vision, given the current distribution of power. One can hope—and
perhaps advocate—that U.S. policymakers will listen closely to the advice of Kepel and
his followers, who have the language skills and conceptual grasp to understand the
complex character of Islamism and its influence among modern Muslims.
Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American
History 1585-1828. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2005. Pp. xiv + 638.
$17.95.
Reviewed by Clyde Greer, The Master’s College (Santa Clarita, CA)
Do we really need a new American history? Only if we want to understand ourselves as
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