Publication

This paper uses a specific political-religious framework to examine 1) how change agents such as social media have affected existing notions of religious identity; 2) the extent to which there has been a democratization of authority within Islam; 3) the eruption of violent Sunni-Shia sectarianism; 4) the rise of the so-called Islamic State (IS); and 5) how governments in the Middle East are coping with violent extremism. The text’s authors also recommend ways that Western nations can help their besieged counterparts in the Arab world.