Perhaps the Muslim world has to go through a new Islamist phase as the result of democratic change – whether Washington likes it or not, Lindsey Hilsum argues.
This is evidently not a view that finds favour with the NS editor, who has added the sarcastic headline “Lindsey Hilsum predicts good times for Arab clerics”. But it’s what people like John Esposito and Noah Feldman have been saying for years – that if the citizens of majority Muslim countries are allowed a democratic choice, they will often vote for Islamists.