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Defining Concepts, Demolishing Myths -- Islam's Multiple Voices -- Self-Proclaimed Islamic States -- Between Ideology and Pragmatism -- Muslim Democracies -- Islamist National Resistance -- Violent Transnationalism -- The Many Faces of Political Islam,

The Iranian Revolution has catalysed the preconceptions holding sway in the Western World about the character of Islam and its politics, based as they are on a mixture of imagined cultural superiority and a latent fear of a resurgence similar to the Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries of the long Ottoman domination of Eastern Europe.This book constitutes a counterweight to such monolithic perceptions of Islam. It surveys the nature of opinion and of government in the larger Muslim regions of the world, and the position of Muslims in states where they are not the dominant populat

1. After the Arab Spring 1. - 2. The Islamist Challenge 12. - 3. Deadlock over Palestine 46. - 4. Regional and Global Rivalries 73. - 5. Iran and the "Bomb" 113. - 6. Will the Middle East Implode? 144

The Middle East has long been fraught with tension and volatility. However, the recent Arab uprisings have intensified instability, turning this 'hot-spot' into a veritable tinderbox whose potential for implosion has far-reaching regional and global consequences. In this short book, leading Middle East scholar Mohammed Ayoob argues that the Arab Spring has both changed and charged some of the region's thorniest problems - from the rise of political Islam to Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Israel-Palestine conflict to rivalries between key regional powers. Exploring the sources of conflict in the Middle East and their various linkages, Ayoob offers a thoughtful and balanced assessment of whether the region is indeed destined for implosion or whether political sagacity and diplomatic creativity can bring it back from the brink.