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Robert R. Reilly Subscribe

Robert R. Reilly is director of the Westminster Institute. He has taught at National Defense University (2007), and served in the Office of The Secretary of Defense, where he was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006). He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 as Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of information. Before that, he was director of the Voice of America. He is the author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis (ISI Books, 2010) and The Prospects and Perils of Catholic-Muslim Dialogue (Isaac Publishing, 2013) .

September 4, 2017|Al Qaeda, ISIS, Islam, Islamic Terrorism, Muslim Brotherhood

After ISIS: A Conversation with Robert Reilly

by Robert R. Reilly|

August 27, 2017. The Joint Operations Command announced Iraqi forces held all 29 districts of the city of Mosul and were pursuing final mopping up operations. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)
Robert Reilly, author of the Closing of the Muslim Mind and a veteran information specialist in the Iraq War, talks about the future of Islamic terrorism in the wake of ISIS's territorial demise.

January 14, 2015|Andre Malraux, Charlie Ebdo, François Hollande, Hanif Kureishi, Mahmoud Abouhalima, Manuel Volls

Trivializing Freedom at Its Source

by Robert R. Reilly|

Let me begin by saying that I love France. It is a country to which I have traveled often, and whose language I have struggled to learn. I am grieved to see her harmed by these latest murderous attacks.

However, I am also ashamed for her. To see emblazoned in lights on the Arc de Triomphe the words, “Paris est Charlie” and to hear “Je suis Charlie” chanted by large crowds and reproduced on innumerable placards, moves me to say, “Je ne suis pas Charlie.” I would have been happy, by the way, to say, “Je suis Juif,” in solidarity with the French Jews who were executed in the Jewish grocery store on that terrible day. Why not Charlie?

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October 14, 2014|Ash'arism, Islam, Islamic State, Jihad, Qur’an

Is the Islamic State Islamic?

by Robert R. Reilly|

“Aggression is never allowed,” but only through the legerdemain of Sharia which defines defense against Islam as aggression.

July 20, 2014|Diplomacy, USIA, Voice of America

Instead, We Played Music

by Robert R. Reilly|

Reflecting on waning American influence in his country as shown by a recent poll, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble sarcastically said: “Perhaps now more of those in power in the United States will ask themselves: Why is America’s soft power, even though it is the indispensable nation, not so great as to be understood by the dumb Germans?” Actually, Americans in and out of power have for some time been asking themselves this question, as it applies to the entire world. It seems to puzzle us. Why have we lost our influence? Can’t the great communicators communicate anymore? Or is there…

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February 1, 2013|

The Formidable Philosophical Obstacles to Islamic Constitutionalism

by Robert R. Reilly|

In response to: Islam and Constitutionalism

Tunisia's Constitutional Assembly, November 2011

Sohail Hashmi makes what seems to be a very reasonable case for the compatibility of Islam and constitutional government, and for the role of a reformed sharia as the foundation for the development of constitutionalism today.  However, his case founders upon his not having given sufficient weight to the obstacles to this development, though his prescription for its achievement is essentially correct. Hashmi contends that "there is no obvious or inherent incompatibility between [constitutionalism] (or, for that matter, democracy) and Islamic political theory," though he leaves unmentioned the Islamic teaching of dīn wa-dawla (religion and state inseparably combined).   He then more…

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More Responses

Muslim States and the Protection of Fundamental Rights

by Asma Uddin

In his essay, “Islam and Constitutionalism,” Sohail H. Hashmi boldly confronts a difficult question: Are Islam and constitutionalism compatible? On his account, a functioning constitutional system has three essential features: (1) limited and accountable government; (2) adherence to the rule of law; and (3) protection of fundamental rights. While virtually all majority-Muslim states have embraced…

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Islamic Constitutionalism and Human Flourishing

by David French

I’m deeply grateful for Professor Hashmi’s lead essay and would recommend it to anyone interested in the intellectual history of Islam or curious about the distinctions between a modern Islamic view of the relationship between government and religion and the modern, dominant view of the Christian and post-Christian West.  It is not, in fact, my…

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June 17, 2012|Edward Said, Iranian Hostage Crisis, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East

The Legacy of Bernard Lewis

by Robert R. Reilly|

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia (LALS Stock/Shutterstock.com)
Bernard Lewis is an academic giant on whose shoulders many now stand. Now, we can read how he did it.

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.

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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.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

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

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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.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

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

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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.

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