Economist provides a review of two book on political Islam, The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, by Noah Feldman and Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to Al Qaeda, by Mark Juergensmeyer. Both, dealing with secularism and Islam, appear to be interesting.

Religion and secularism: Power points
The slogans of political Islam remain highly resonant, whether as a programme
for peaceful governance or an inspiration to wage war. Two new books explain why

WHEN the British and French empires were at their height, imperial service often provided an outlet for the talents of precociously clever ethnographers, social anthropologists and scholars of religion. On the face of things, Noah Feldman is a similar figure, rendering important services to the American imperium, both as a rising star in the intellectual establishment and in more practical ways—he helped to draft Iraq’s new constitution.

A young professor at Harvard Law School with a doctorate in Islamic political thought, Mr Feldman is brimming with the sort of expertise that America’s new proconsuls in the Middle East and Afghanistan badly need. Above all, he is qualified to opine on how America should react to the dilemma posed by the huge popular support, in Muslim lands, for explicitly Islamic forms of administration.
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