Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

AuthorMajor Mark D. Sameit
PositionJudge Advocate, U.S. Marine Corps. Student, 60th Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia
Pages241-249
2011] BOOK REVIEWS 241
ROCK THE CASBAH: RAGE AND REBELLION ACROSS
THE ISLAMIC WORLD1
REVIEWED BY MAJOR MARK D. SAMEIT*
For a decade, the outside world was so preoccupied with
its “war on terrorism” that it gave little credence to
efforts among Muslims to deal with the overlapping
problems—autocratic regimes and extremist
movements—that fed off each other.2
I. Introduction
Since September 11, 2001, Americans have become all too familiar
with Islamic extremist movements and the wars in the Middle East. Over
the past decade, journalists have filled newspapers with daily accounts of
American travails in Iraq and Afghanistan.3 Unfortunately, the larger
question of the overall appeal of Islamic extremism throughout the
Islamic world has received little coverage. The recent events in Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain have brought this question to the
forefront of American minds.4
* Judge Advocate, U.S. Marine Corps. Student, 60th Judge Advocate Officer Graduate
Course, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, U.S. Army,
Charlottesville, Virginia.
1 ROBIN WRIGHT, ROCK THE CASBAH: RAGE AND REBELLION ACROSS THE ISLAMIC WORLD
(2011).
2 Id. at 3.
3 See Sherry Ricchiardi, Whatever Happened to Iraq?, AM. JOURNALISM REV., June/July
2008, available at http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4515 (detailing how Iraq filled
twenty-three percent of TV news in early 2007); Katherine Tiedemann, Afghanistan vs.
Iraq Media Coverage, the Redux, AFPAK CHANNEL (Sept. 17, 2009, 10:55 AM),
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/09/17/afghanistan_vs_iraw_media_coverage_t
he_redux (detailing how coverage of Afghanistan picked up in 2009 as Iraq coverage
trailed off).
4 For a brief description of these events, see The Arab Spring: A Year of Revolution,
NATL PUB. RADIO (Dec. 17, 2011), http://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143897126/the-arab-
spring-a-year-of-revolution (describing the overthrows of President Ali in Tunisia,
President Mubarak in Egypt, and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya); Thomas Erdbrink,
Bahrain Crackdown Fuels Tensions in Gulf Region, at A08, WASH. POST (Apr. 23, 2011)
(describing the unsuccessful protests of the Al-Khalifa monarchy in Bahrain); Rick
Gladstone & Neil MacFarquhar, U.N. Official Rebukes Syria over Violence, N.Y. TIMES,
at A4 (Feb. 14, 2012) (describing the Syria conflict and steps taken over the past year).

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