Afghanistan had left the scene long ago, the Soviet invasion and resistance relegated to oblivion by an inextricable tribal/civil war fought by warlords and other “extremists”. Everyone was in a hurry to forget the country altogether. Suddenly the Tâlebân came out of nowhere—or so it seemed. Since then the Tâlebân have dominated publications about Afghanistan. The swift capture of Kabul, after years of siege and rocket attacks that wreaked havoc in the capital, thrust Afghanistan once again into the headlines and onto the television screens.

Although Americans of Middle Eastern origin—be they of Arab, Turkish, Armenian, Sephardic Jewish, Assyrian, Greek, or Central Asian heritage—comprise one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, their music may seem invisible to the American musical connoisseur. Many of the recordings of Middle Eastern American musicians are produced and distributed within community networks. Walk into an Armenian grocer in Watertown, Massachusetts or into a Lebanese audio-video store in Dearborn, Michigan, and you will find hundreds of hours of music by Middle Eastern Americans for your listening pleasure. Walk into your public library and you may not find a thing. Middle Eastern music made in America is simply not widely available on the major or alternative recording labels to which we habitually turn for our fare of world music.

In His Review essay on “Civil Society, Liberalism and the Corporatist Alternative in the Middle East,” Louis J. Cantori continues his indefatigable promotion of corporatism as a lens for understanding Middle East politics. Lou and I have been friends for many years, and I know that I probably will not be able to shake his deep attachment to corporatism. Nonetheless, since the inspiration for his latest peroration was the two volume collection on civil society in the Middle East that I edited, I thought readers of the Bulletin might be interested in my response to his assertions.