With its commandments and parables, its kings and its prophets, the Hebrew Bible has served as a reference point for Western politics for centuries. Almost every kind of political movement, it seems, has drawn its own message from the text.

A new book aims to settle the long-running debate over democracy and "Asian values," arguing that culture is not to blame for the fact that only six of the 16 countries of East and Southeast Asia are functioning democracies.

From the day the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower, religion has played a prominent role in American public life.

To understand the Brotherhood's prospects in Egypt's upcoming elections, one has to understand the organization itself.

John Campbell says diplomacy and democracy--not firepower--is the best way to undermine Nigeria's growing Islamist threat.

Olivier Roy's new book argues that religion and culture are disengaging from each other thanks to globalization.

Religion is on the rise around the world, from the southern United States to the Middle East.

In The Flight of the Intellectuals, Paul Berman argues that it is not violent Islamists who pose the greatest danger to liberal societies in the West but rather their so-called moderate cousins, such as Tariq Ramadan.

Turkey hopes to be a global power, but it has not yet become even the regional player that the ruling AKP declares it to be.

Religion and modernity were never expected to go hand in hand, and for centuries they coexisted uncomfortably.

The United States should recognize that religious freedom is vital not only to liberty and stability abroad but also to U.S. national security.

Even as Western commentators condemn the Muslim Brotherhood for its Islamism, radicals in the Middle East condemn it for rejecting jihad and embracing democracy. Such relative moderation offers Washington a notable opportunity for engagement -- as long as policymakers recognize the considerable variation between the group's different branches and tendencies.

While radical Islamist terrorist groups such as al Qaeda grab the headlines, their nonviolent ideological cousins remain little known. But groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir play a crucial role in indoctrinating Muslims with radical ideology. Because they occupy a gray zone of militancy, regulating them is a diffcult challenge for liberal democracies -- but ignoring them is no longer an option.

Given the atrocities they have suffered in the past and the autonomy they are enjoying now, Kosovo's Albanians will never accept continued Serbian sovereignty. The time has come to give them what they want -- independence.