Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World
by Robin Wright
Simon and Schuster, 2011. 307 pgs. Non-Fiction.

Robin Wright aptly uses the title of the 1982 Clash hit to describe what is currently happening in the Arab countries of the Middle East and Africa. From Tunisia to Yemen, and Egypt to Bahrain, the long-put-upon jobless young and the endless ranks of the poor have given civil disobedience a bold new definition. Wright, a multiple award-winning correspondent for many first-rank newspapers, journals, and broadcast outlets, has given us a fascinating and thorough account of the shifting tides of the Islamic world. Many personal interviews yield a picture of a diverse people sick of being viewed as terrorists because of a few fanatics (think: Warren Jeffs as an exemplar of Mormonism). Many Muslims have chosen to challenge that image in interesting ways: the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, for instance, or the wearing of pink hijabs, and the writing and reciting of protest poetry. Wright also takes on the tepid response and confused foreign policy of the United States government. We should have known what was coming and we didn't.
Fascinating, enlightening, and disarming in all senses of the word, Rock the Casbah . . . is essential reading for our times.

LW