Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World with a new concluding chapter by the author

by Robin Wright

Overview

A decade after the 9/11 attacks, this groundbreaking and brilliantly received book takes readers deep into rebellions against both autocrats and extremists that are redefining politics, culture, and security across the Islamic world and beyond.

A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Robin Wright’s Rock the Casbah took readers deep into rebellions against both autocrats and extremists that were redefining politics, culture, and security across the Islamic world. A year after the Arab Spring, she went back to Egypt and Tunisia where it had all started for an epilogue, The Morning After, describing the new reality—that creating a new order is as hard as ousting the old one. In this brilliant follow-up report, Wright describes the hopes and the turmoil of the region through the words of those who are living it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439103173
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	08/07/2012
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Robin Wright is the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for the L.A. Times's Washington bureau.

Wright is both an extraordinary, seasoned journalist and a highly respected Middle East scholar who lived throughout that region for five years. She has reported from more than 130 countries as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, CBS News, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times of London, and the Christian Science Monitor. She has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, Civilization, Current History, The Middle East Journal, The New York Times, and the Guardian.

Wright is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant and the 1989 National Magazine Award for her reportage from Iran in the The New Yorker. She also won the Overseas Press Club Award for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and initiative" for the Angolan war.

Wright was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Poynter fellow at Yale, a senior fellow at Duke, a Media Fellow at Stanford, and a Regents Fellow at UC Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

Prologue The Sandstorm 1

Part 1 Extreme Makeover 13

1 The Scent of Jasmine 15

2 The Counter-jihad 41

3 The Big Chill 65

4 A Midsummer's Eve 90

Part 2 A Different Tune 113

5 Hip-Hop Islam 115

6 The New Chic 138

7 The Living Poets Society 160

8 Satellite Sheikhs and YouTube Imams 176

9 The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour 189

10 Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes 214

Part 3 A Wild Ride 227

11 The Beginning of the Beginning 229

12 The Diplomatic Pas de Deux 244

Epilogue The Morning After 257

Acknowledgments 271

Notes 275

Bibliography 299

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Rock the Casbah

“[Wright] provides invaluable context for what she rightly terms ‘the epic convulsion across the Islamic world’ by listening to voices we don't usually hear....Anyone seeking deeper understanding of the Arab Spring needs to read Wright's formidably well-informed book ….Wright's richly textured portrait of ancient cultures in the throes of wrenching but liberating transformation makes it quite clear that Muslims themselves will decide their future.”

— Los Angeles Times

“…Wright is an expert on the subject and this book is an accessible and riveting account for readers looking to learn more about the post-9/11 Islamic world.”

—Publishers Weekly

“…Wright is one of the most capable observers of the Middle East….her chronicles of counter-jihad, anti-militancy, and women's mobilization are a timely contribution.”

—Huffington Post

Praise for Robin Wright’s

Dreams and Shadows

“Wright has long been one of the best-informed American journalists covering the Middle East, and her reputation is born out here. . . . Her book will be essential reading for anybody who wants to know where it is heading.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Only Wright could have written Dreams and Shadows because only Wright has traveled so widely, interviewed such diverse leaders, and brought so much wisdom to analyzing the region’s many-sided puzzles. This volume, full of mesmerizing detail and large truths, sets a new standard for scholarship on the modern Middle East.”

—Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State

“If there is such a thing as a pinnacle in the landscape of international journalism, Robin Wright surely stands atop it.”

—The New York Review of Books

“Robin Wright is well aware of the complexities, paradoxes and the seemingly insurmountable dilemmas facing the Middle East today. She reminds us that in facing these challenges we need not resort to military force and violence or resign ourselves to compromise with extremism and tyranny.”

— Azar Nafisi, author Reading Lolita in Tehran

“The best of all possible worlds: An old hand guides us through the changes in the post-9/11 Middle East, and is able to sort out in a sober, smart way what is really going on.”

—Thomas Ricks, author Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

From the Publisher

You've heard this complaint before: Why don't Muslims challenge the violent extremists among them? Well, they do, explains Wright—and she should know. An Overseas Club and UN Correspondents Association Gold Medal winner for her coverage of foreign affairs, she's reported from 140 countries, with a special focus on the Muslim world; her most recent book was Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East. Here she cites the clerics, comedians, and rappers who challenge al Qaeda violence; the women who are launching liberation movements; and the former jihadists who openly reject violence. These Muslims all want to build a better Islam—on their own, not Western, terms. Relevant and engrossing; I want this book now.

Library Journal