Passion for Islam

Ms. Murphy talked about her book Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience, published by Scribner. In it, she argues that a myriad of social, political, and religious factors have made today’s Middle East a combustible region and has contributed to Islam’s new power and turmoil. She studies Egypt to show one example of how these forces play out across the area, allowing terrorism to gain a foothold.

Through the personal experiences and observations of individual Egyptians encountered during her five years as the Washington Post’s Cairo bureau chief, Ms. Murphy explores how Islam’s contemporary revival is unfolding on four different levels: “Pious Islam” highlights the grassroots piety that has created more Islamic societies; “Political Islam” examines how Muslims, using both violent and peaceful means, are reshaping the region’s secular political order and redefining Islam’s role in the public arena; “Cultural Islam” looks at Egyptian efforts to close