Real intolerance against Muslims exists, no question. But the term “Islamophobia” is too often deployed to inhibit rather than encourage dialogue about honest questions, concerns, or grievances.

In an excellent review of Shadi Hamid and Will McCants’ Rethinking Political Islam, Olivier Roy says there are generally two ways to think about Islamism: contextualist or essentialist.

While the Daesh genocide perpetrated against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities is an extreme example of religious persecution, it sheds light on the perils religious minorities have been encountering more generally in the Middle East.

It is said that victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. In the case of NATO’s military intervention in Libya six years ago, both sides of the adage seem to apply.

In the chaotic and often violent aftermath of the Arab Spring, the Sultanate of Oman has moved to a different beat, distinguishing itself as a peacemaker and mediator in comparison to its neighboring Arab states.