Talk of the Arab Spring has turned, in some quarters, to talk of an Arab Winter. The latest cause for pessimism has been the results of the first of three rounds of Egyptian parliamentary elections, where the Muslim Brotherhood and a Salafist political party garnered, respectively, roughly 49% and 20% of the available seats, making it likely they will dominate the next parliament....

Concerns about Islamic extremism and ongoing debates about the integration and assimilation of Muslims into Western societies continue to attract considerable attention from the media, policymakers, and scholars, but relatively little cross-national research has been done on Western attitudes toward Muslims. This article attempts to address this question by exploring 2006 Pew Global Attitudes data among non-Muslims in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and the U.S. Using structural equation modeling, we examine the determinants of Western views toward Muslims, and find that threat perceptions are the primary factor influencing these views. Specifically, our analysis suggests that perceptions of security threats drive attitudes regarding Muslims, and that perceived cultural threats are only indirectly related to views towards Muslims....

The first round of voting to elect a new parliament after President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow is scheduled to begin Monday across Egypt. Deadly clashes between security forces and protesters and the interim civilian government's resignation have left many questions hanging over the future of Egypt's parliamentary elections. Many view Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's resignation as a step that plunges the country into a deeper political crisis than previously recognized. Yet others view the current standoff as a long-awaited breaking point between the military council currently ruling the country and calls for increased freedoms and a speedier transition process to a civilian rule since Mubarak's ouster....

It's time to pause and reflect on the current discourse about Islam and Muslims. The families of the almost three thousand victims who died on 9/11 continue to mourn their loved ones, even as much of the developing world wonders why suffering that took place on American soil should divide the history of not just Americans but the whole world into pre- and post-9/11 phases, while their continuing suffering and poverty has become accepted as normal. One of the persistent topics of discussion in this post-9/11 landscape is tolerance: simultaneously the insistence that Muslims need to be more tolerant (often coded as the need for "moderate Islam") than before 9/11 and Americans needs to be more tolerant of Muslims....