Acknowledgments
I first began working on this book in 2014. Stathis Kalyvas’ The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe served as a key inspiration for me. The Rise of Christian Democracy was well argued and well researched; it was, and still is, one of the best books on politics and religion. Yet, to me – as someone who works in a different regional context – the book felt incomplete, but not because it has any glaring shortcomings. I was intrigued by how the theory might travel in the Middle Eastern context where Islamist parties were the dominant religious parties. I wondered if there were systematic differences between Catholic and Islamist parties, in particular from an institutional point of view and using political economic approach to the study of religious politics. The Rise of Christian Democracy, however, was not meant to answer these questions. Fortunately, it motivated me to take up the task and examine the two sets of religious political parties in a comparative framework.
I am indebted to many individuals in the writing of this book. Without their support, the book would certainly not have come to fruition. I want to thank all of them for their support and help. First and foremost, I thank my colleagues at the Edward P. Djerejian Center for Middle East at the Baker Institute. Kelsey Norman, Mohammad Tabaar, and Kristian Ulrichsen have been excellent colleagues and friends, offering support every step of the way. I can’t imagine having better colleagues.
Many friends and colleagues graciously offered their feedback and criticisms on the draft of the book. They were generous with their time in reading drafts of the manuscript, engaging in discussions, and overall putting up with my inferior work. Jillian Schwedler, Nathan Brown, and Anthony Gill offered tremendously helpful feedback in my book workshop. Their feedback helped clarify the argument, improve the organization, and better connect the argument and the empirical evidence. The workshop served as a critical step in completing the book. Over the years, I benefitted from feedback by Abdullah Aydogan, Matt Buehler, Kristin Fabbe, Courtney Freer, Sharan Grewal, Lisel Hintz, Amaney Jamal, Ekrem Karakoc, Ramazan Kilinc, Esen Kirdis, Ahmet Kuru, Mirjam Künkler, Jonathan Laurence, Avital Livny, Marc Lynch, Peter Mandaville, Tarek Masoud, Rich Nielsen, Irfan Nooruddin, Annelle Sheline, Hakki Tas, and Scott Williamson.
I received the Smith Richardson Foundation’s Strategy & Policy Fellows grant in support of this book. The grant supported the fieldwork and allowed me an opportunity to draft the manuscript. I am grateful for their support.
Baker Institute leadership and staff have offered unyielding support in the writing of this book. Ambassador Edward Djerejian consistently encouraged me and offered policy-based feedback. Lianne Hart in the editorial team, Shawn O’Neill in the graphics team, and Lisa Winfrey in the development team have all provided excellent assistance at different stages.
Cambridge University Press editorial team have been outstanding since the start of the review process. Sara Doskow and Rachel Blaifeder have been excellent editors to work with. Jadyn Fauconier-Henry provided superb editorial assistance. Becky Jackaman oversaw the production process admirably. I also thank the series editors of the Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics. In particular, I want to single out Anna Grzymala-Busse for her exceptional feedback on the manuscript during the review process. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their criticisms and feedback.
I feel extremely fortunate to have had excellent research assistance over the years. I am grateful to Colton Cox, Makenzie Drukker, Marie Lawrence, Jack McCall, Meredith McCain, Mason Reece, Sarah Smati, and Elaine Zhang for their assistance. I also want to thank Safa Belghith for her help with fieldwork in Tunisia.
Last but not least, I want to acknowledge an unlikely source of motivation. In my years dedicated to writing this book, I encountered many challenges, including but not limited to uncertainty about the direction of the book, the pressure of working on multiple projects simultaneously, and the extant haze. Under similar conditions, many seek external sources of motivation to get back on track and refocus on occasion. In my case, hip-hop music offered a way out of the occasional rut I might have found myself stuck in. The Wu-Tang Clan deserves distinct recognition here. Wu-Tang’s grimy beats, raw sound, defiant lyrics, and extensive use of self-aggrandizement drew me in. The dynamics of hip hop music, in certain ways, evoke pre-modern Sufi poetry. Despite the seeming contrast in their arts, contemporary hip-hop and pre-modern Sufi-inspired poetry have much in common. Poetry represented one of the highest forms of art in many pre-modern Muslim societies. The poets of the day were excellent in rhyming; yet, it was their ability to relate to the social and political issues of their time and the extent to which they could engage with their contemporaries in their craft that characterized and ultimately perfected their art. At a time when music might feel like a largely sanitized enterprise, the social and political undertones of the Wu-Tang beats certainly struck a chord. As cliché as it may sound, there is more to Wu-Tang than the iconic sword sounds and the lines the group liked sampling from kung fu flicks. Wu-Tang’s grit and intrepidity have been inspirational in resetting my focus and reorienting my mind toward tasks ahead. Timeless Wu-Tang is forever.
Despite all the help and support I received over the years, the book almost certainly falls short of reflecting the generosity and brilliance of this support. If the book has achieved any of its stated objectives, it is due to the support I received.
