"Tarek Fatah rightly explains that the decline of the world’s Muslims does not come from the absence of a puritanical Islamic state. It is the result of the state in which the Muslims currently find themselves. He also calls for making a distinction between pietistic Muslims and those pursuing power in Islam’s name. Some of his views, especially in relation to U.S. policies and the war against terrorism, are bound to generate controversy and not everyone agreeing with his diagnosis will necessarily agree with his prescription. But Fatah joins the expanding list of Muslim authors challenging Islamism and demanding that Muslims should revert to Islam an essentially spiritual and ethical belief system instead of stretching history to present Islam as a political ideology."

- Husain Haqqani

  Professor, Boston University/Co-Chair of the Islam and Democracy Project at Hudson Institute, Washington D.C.