The world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia, has long stood out for its unique embrace of tolerance, pluralism, and inclusiveness. In recent years, however, a wave of high-profile terrorist attacks and the rise of more militant forms of Islam have strained the country’s social fabric and raised questions about its vibrant...

Will Mecca remain the reflection of the Muslim world or become a concrete parking lot?

For Pakistan, founded as a homeland for all Indian Muslims, the Sunni-Shiite divide is an awkward subject that many would rather ignore. But the rest of the world needs to pay more attention to this conflict.

Can the Saudi kingdom extricate itself from terror?

Rubin reviews I. B. Tauris's Cradle of Islam: The Hijaz and the Quest for an Arabian Identity.

Recent bombings--like the bombing in Bali several months ago--are signs of al Qaeda's weakness, not its strength.

The arrival of foreign holy warriors is deradicalizing the local population in Iraq due to theirdiscomfort with al Qaeda's violence.

Against this backdrop--Pakistan careening from one crisis to the next and the U.S.-Pakistan relationship at its lowest point in years--come two contrasting books from experts on the country.