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Luma Simms Subscribe

Luma Simms, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has written on the life and thought of immigrants for First Things, the Federalist, Public Discourse, and many other publications.

March 10, 2020|Christian Humanism, Daniel Okrent, Eugenics, Immigration, Racism

The Need For a Humane Immigration Debate

by Luma Simms|

Newly-arrived immigrants at Ellis Island in 1921 (shutterstock.com)
It is wrong to think of immigration primarily as a problem to solve—as an “it” when it is really a “he,” “she,” and “they.”

December 23, 2019|

Persecution, True and False

by Luma Simms|

A desecrated church in Qaraqosh (a.k.a. Bakhdida, Al-Hamdaniya), the Christian city occupied by ISIS in 2016 (Cosimo Attanasio - Redline / Shutterstock.com).
If “persecution” of Christians can be used with any kind of sincerity in our context, it is the feeling of general impotency which comes from decadence.

February 20, 2019|

Iran’s Revolution Reconsidered

by Luma Simms|

In response to: Islam, Blasphemy, and the East-West Divide

The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran in 1979 (alamy.com).
Khomeini rejected democracy because of its “Western dimension.”

More Responses

Honor Versus Freedom

by Hillel Fradkin

Khomeini and the Islamic Republic took the lead in trying to regain Islam’s lost honor and glory, which meant eradicating insults to the faith.

A Clash of the Sacred and the Secular

by Nader Hashemi

Where should freedom of speech begin and end? Should anything be held as sacred? All emerging democracies struggle with these questions.

Islam and the West: Mustafa Akyol Responds

by Mustafa Akyol

A Muslim Enlightenment might take root in the West more than anywhere else.

November 20, 2018|Alexis de Tocqueville, Immigration, low-skill workers, melting pot, Reihan Salam

Policy Change Alone Can Never Fix Our Immigration Problems

by Luma Simms|

Aerial view of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (iofoto/shutterstock.com).
Immigration offers socio-economic challenges, but also spiritual ones.

October 9, 2018|The Virtue of Nationalism, Yoram Hazony

The Soul’s Need for Rootedness

by Luma Simms|

Image: Abitt/Adobe Stock Images.
Hazony on the metaphysical source (much devalued in our day) of the nation.

September 17, 2018|Bashar al-Assad, Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, Nationalism, Said Qutb, Secularism

Secular Nationalism, Islamism, and Making the Arab World

by Luma Simms|

Democracy is not impossible in the Middle East, but a people, a nation, a culture, must work out its own form of government.

April 9, 2018|Democracy, Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Misagh Parsa, revolution

The Road to Iranian Democracy

by Luma Simms|

The suppression of the Green Movement last time around widened the gulf between Iran's elite and its people.

March 5, 2018|1839 Reform Decree, Eugene Rogan, imperialism, Ottoman Empire, persecution of religious minorities, Reverend Doctor Mitri Raheb, The Arabs: A History, Wahhabists, Yezidi minority community

Correcting for the Historian’s Middle Eastern Biases

by Luma Simms|

Eugene Rogan lays too much at the feet of colonialism and imperial Europe.

January 24, 2018|Human Rights, Iran, Pope John Paul II, Vaclav Havel

Being Realistic—but Hopeful—about Iran

by Luma Simms|

March in support of Iranian protesters, January 6, 2018. livethemoment / Shutterstock.com
The road to liberty in Iran, and throughout the Middle East, is through the moral power of recognizing human dignity.

Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

Read More

The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

Read More

Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

Read More

Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

Read More

Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

Read More

America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

Read More

Recent Posts

  • The Just Restraint of the Vicious

    For some contemporary criminal justice reformers, devotion to ideology leads to illogical conclusions about human nature and character change.
    by Gerard T. Mundy

  • Too Immature to be Punished?

    When I look back on my own life, I think I knew by the age of ten that one should not strangle old ladies in their beds.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Badge of Discrimination

    The British National Health Service has spoken: Wear the badge or declare yourself to be a bigot.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Judicial Takeover of Asylum Policy?

    Thuraissigiam threatens to make both the law and the facts in every petition for asylum—and there are thousands of them—a matter for the courts.
    by Thomas Ascik

  • The Environmental Uncertainty Principle

    By engaging in such flagrant projection, the Times has highlighted once again the problem with groupthink in the climate discussion.
    by Paul Schwennesen

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

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