Daniel Pipes

The volatility of Muslim and Middle Eastern politics has made these topics an overriding preoccupation of world and especially U.S. politics. Perhaps no region of the world has ever so dominated the American public discourse as the Middle East does today. Sources of trouble include militant Islam, Muslims in the West, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iraq situation, relations with Saudi Arabia, the price of oil and gas, and U.S. policy toward all these issues. This collection, by one of the foremost experts in the field, presents original insights, accessibly written.--From publisher description.

When Margaret Cavendish, one of Elizabeth I's Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber, lost her life in a bungled attempt to kill the Queen, her daughter, Lady Grace, became a protegee to the monarch, who takes her under her wing. Now Grace, a spunky girl who romps through the gardens with the laundry maids and court tumblers and rolls her eyes at her fellow ladies, chronicles the court intrigues that swirl around her. . . .The Royal Court is on its summer travels and Lady Grace is sure something strange is going on. As Queen Elizabeth narrowly escapes a series of mysterious accidents, Grace must investigate just who might be behind the conspiracy. Could it really be one of the Queen's faithful friends--or even her latest suitor?Delve into the daybooke of Lady Grace, Queen Elizabeth's favorite Maid of Honor, to discover a deadly dangerous plot.From the Hardcover edition.

In The Hidden Hand, Daniel Pipes provides the first full-length study of conspiracy theories in the Middle East, revealing the power of such theories in determining the political life of the region. Placing conspiracy theories in their historical context, Pipes shows how they have come to suffuse life in the Middle East - from the most private family conversations to the highest and most public levels of politics. He then proceeds to examine conspiracism as a partial explanation for much of the region's problems, including its record of political extremism, violence, and lack of modernization. Concluding with speculations about the future of conspiracism, Pipes makes a very strong case that conspiracy theories are key to understanding the often complicated political culture of the Middle East. The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy is a book that anyone interested in the Middle East will want to read.

"The publication in 1988 of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses triggered a furor that pitted much of the Islamic world against the West over issues of blasphemy and freedom of expression. The controversy soon took on the aspect of a confrontation of civilizations, provoking powerful emotions on a global level. It involved censorship, protests, riots, a break in diplomatic relations, culminating in the notorious Iranian edict calling for the death of the novelist. In The Rushdie Affair, Daniel Pipes explains why the publication of The Satanic Verses became a cataclysmic event with far-reaching political and social consequences. Pipes looks at the Rushdie affair in both its political and cultural aspects and shows in considerable detail what the fundamentalists perceived as so offensive in The Satanic Verses as against what Rushdie's novel actually said. Pipes explains how the book created a new crisis between Iran and the West at the time -- disrupting international diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, and prospects for the release of Western hostages in Lebanon. Pipes maps out the long-term implications of the crisis. If the Ayatollah so easily intimidated the West, can others do the same? Can millions of fundamentalist Muslims now living in the United States and Europe possibly be assimilated into a culture so alien to them? Insightful and brilliantly written, this volume provides a full understanding of one of the most significant events in recent years. Koenraad Elst's postscript reviews the enduring impact of the Rushdie affair."--Back cover.

Nationally bestselling author James Rollins has transported readers to the dark heart of the Amazon, the bowels of the earth, far below the ocean, and the top of the world. Now he embarks upon his most gripping and terrifying adventure yet: to a nightmare buried beneath a treacherous desert wasteland. An inexplicable explosion rocks the antiquities collection of a London museum -- a devastating blast that sets off alarms in clandestine organizations around the world, as the race begins to determine how it happened, why it happened, and what it means. Lady Kara Kensington's family paid a high price in money and blood to found the gallery that now lies in ruins. And her search for answers is about to lead Kara and her friend Safia al-Maaz, the gallery's brilliant and beautiful curator, into a world they never dreamed actually existed. For new evidence exposed by the tragedy suggests that Ubar, a lost city buried beneath the Arabian desert, is more than mere legend ... and that something astonishing is waiting there. Two extraordinary women and their guide, the international adventurer Omaha Dunn, are not the only ones being drawn to the desert. Former U.S. Navy SEAL Painter Crowe, a covert government operative and head of an elite counterespionage team, is hunting down a dangerous turncoat, Crowe's onetime partner, to retrieve the vital information she has stolen. And the trail is pointing him toward Ubar. But the many perils inherent in a death-defying trek deep into the savage heart of the Arabian Peninsula pale before the nightmarish secrets to be unearthed at journey's end. What is hidden below the sand is more than a valuable relic of ancient history. It is an ageless power that lives and breathes -- an awesome force that could create a utopia or tear down everything humankind has built during millennia of civilization. Many lives have already been destroyed by ruthless agencies dedicated to guarding its mysteries and harnessing its might. And now the end may be at hand for Safia, for Kara, for Crowe, and for all the interlopers who wish to expose its mysteries, as it prepares to unleash the most terrible storm of all ...

Ben Makepeace, a screenwriter, is recently divorced, with a young son to care for. So when he's invited up to Stoneham Park in Oxfordshire to meet someone who wants to bankroll his latest script, he jumps at the chance. Victor Sheldon is a hedge fund billionaire yet when Ben meets him he's bemused, for Victor is none other than old schoolfriend Daniel, last seen some 25 years ago. Victor is eager to introduce him to the various occupants of his Palladian home and Ben can't quite believe the great stroke of good fortune. But history can cast a long shadow, and soon Ben finds himself caught up in a vicious endgame with roots buried deep in the past of his childhood.