Across the literary pages: Eurabian edition

A cold wind is blowing from the Middle East. It may have been caused by the re-emergence of Gaddafi loyalists in Libya, or the continued bloodshed in Syria, or the Rushdie mania at the Jaipur Literary Festival. But whatever the source, many Westerners are having second thoughts about the Arab Spring, and their scepticism is partly inspired by an age-old unease about political Islam.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of books. Jonathan Benthall wrote in last week’s TLS:

‘It is not irrational for those who accept Enlightenment values to be phobic about the laws against apostasy and blasphemy current in some major Islamic states.’

He wrote that while reviewing seven newish books* on Islamophohia, extremism and interfaith dialogue.

It could have been many more than seven. In After the Arab Spring, John R. Bradley extends the arguments he made in the Spectator last year. The promise of the Arab Spring is being appropriated by Muslim reactionaries, who would impose illiberal religious laws on fledgling democracies.