Shadi Hamid's latest for The Atlantic: "Resist the Lure of Theological Politics"
Shadi Hamid's new essay ponders why "Instead of applying religious certainty to public debates, Americans need to take a different lesson from their faith traditions."
❝ There is something corrupting not just about the struggle for power through politics but about politics itself. Philosophers and pundits have long condemned the political as both profane and belittling, the near opposite of the pure and higher spiritual pursuits. In his valediction for the great, controversial scholar Edward Said, Christopher Hitchens wrote: “Indeed, if it had not been for the irruption of abrupt force into the life of his extended family and the ripping apart of the region by partition and subpartition, I can easily imagine Edward evolving as an almost apolitical person, devoted to the loftier pursuits of music and literature.” ... [TheAtlantic.com]
| SHADI HAMID is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of several books, including Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World. Watch him discuss his book Islamic Exceptionalism below, and learn more about booking Shadi for your next event today. |
