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The new Middle East: protest and revolution in the Arab world, edited by Fawaz A. Gerges

new sphere where we can find a reciprocal connection and influence between religious authorities and politics. This book argues that this transformation has important effects on changing the political goals of religious leaders and the political salience of the religious identities of religious individuals. However, many will argue that historical narrative as a method has one important methodological deficiency – despite providing a sound theoretical foundation, it does not actually allow for the testing of those theories. Driessen thus uses comparative experiences from other countries to test his theory. As a comparative test for Italy he uses the French experience, and for the Algerian case he uses Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Indonesia. In my opinion, all of these research methods, extant data, field work, analyses and derived conclusions will make this book an important piece in the debate on religion and democracy. In his own words, Driessen’s endeavour on religiously friendly democratization advances the wider debate about the “moderation and incorporation of hostile religious actors and ideas into democratization processes”, which is an important basis for future analyses on the interplay between religion and democracy (261–2). Driessen’s work on religiously friendly democratization is a remarkable and important contribution to the debate on religion and democracy. It not just represents great research and field work, but it also gives a model on how this concept can be used and tested on other case studies. I think of this as a most important contribution of religiously friendly democratization as a whole. This concept is not limited only to Italy and Algeria, nor to the Muslim and Catholic world. Its scope is much broader. I believe that many researchers will find it useful in dealing with other world religions and democracy, particularly in Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, I am looking forward to reading future work using Driessen’s idea as a starting point. At the very least this book will surely remain a must-read for scholars and graduate students all over the world interested in religion and democracy.