A rise in Iraq's violence and sectarian tensions--and the highest U.S. monthly combat deaths since 2008--come amid mounting concerns over the government's role and questions about the U.S. troop presence, says expert Sean Kane.

Recent violence against Christians in Malaysia and Egypt points to rising tensions over religious freedom and Islamic identity. Legal expert Angela Wu argues these issues must be considered more carefully in U.S. foreign policy.

Howard B. Schaffer, a former top State Department official on South Asia, says Washington should seek to prevent tensions in Kashmir from complicating U.S. security interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian journalist, discusses the split within Iran between the so-called neoconservatives, who support Ahmadinejad, and the more traditional conservatives, who support the older generation of leaders.

A week away from crucial parliamentary elections in Turkey, relations between the United States and Turkey are severely strained. CFR Fellow Steven A. Cook says a recent major poll shows that “in Turkey, a NATO country firmly allied with the United States over the last fifty years, only 9 percent of Turks have a favorable view of the United States.”

Which style of Islam will prevail in Tunisia?

In the wake of the deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, Bobby Ghosh writes that the newly-formed democratic governments which replaced long-standing dictatorships, as a result of the Arab Spring, has contributed to greater instability and a more chaotic and unstable Middle East.

Two attacks on American diplomatic buildings in Cairo and Benghazi, Libya, illustrate the ugly bigotry of two sets of religious fundamentalists in different ends of the world.

The most extreme adherents of radical Islam are getting with the times, writes Olivier Roy in this excerpt from his upcoming book.

Ahmed Rashid argues that sectarian bloodshed is employed in Afghanistan and Egypt as a tool to thwart democracy and diplomacy.

Malise Ruthven argues that Hamid Dabashi's book, Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest, performs a vital cultural and political service by emancipating Shiism from its use by Iran.

Pol Gradaigh explains why Egyptian parties are cautious of the term "secular," opting instead to define themselves as a "civic" state against Islamist ideology.

Robin Wright argues that Islam is emerging as an equally potent force as democracy in defining the new order in the Middle East.

From sharia law to reestablishing banks, Mark Urban questions what the rise of political Islam will mean for citizens of Northern Africa.

Yasmine El Rashidi examines why many Egyptians consider the violence surrounding the "Bloody Sunday" Coptic march as a dark turning point in the country's bid to build an inclusive democratic society.

Karim Sadjadpour writes in the Washington Post that by accentuating the country's internal rifts and breaking previously sacred taboos -- such as challenging the supreme leader -- Ahmadinejad has become an unlikely, unwitting ally of Iran's democracy movement.