Publisher's Synopsis
Tracing the roots of today's struggle for political legitimacy in many Middle Eastern countries, the author offers the reader an analysis of Islamic history and philosophy from the formation and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century to the present day.;She describes how the process of development of the secular state in the Middle East was interrupted at an early stage by oppressive Western colonialism. This eventually led to a Muslim rejection of national secularism and all things Western and to the reassertion of Islam as the sole source of political legitimacy.
