Book Review of The Shia Revival by NPS Prof. Nasr
Description
In February, a group of Sunni Muslims bombed the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, one of Shiite Islams' holiest sites. Meanwhile, Muslims continued rioting over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Prompted by the week's violence, HBO's Bill Maher pulled a Rodney King and asked "Can't we all just get Allah?" As a guest on his show that night, I howled offstage, but the joke fell flatter than my hair under a head scarf. Most of Maher's studio audience didn't get it. Americans may be paying more attention to Muslim conflicts now. They had better. In "the Shia Revival," a fast moving, engaging and ultimately unnerving book, Vali Nasr writes that wars within Islama "will shape the future."