Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and
Yemen. By Jillian Schwedler. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006. 252p. $80.00.
Many attribute the failure of democratization in the Islamic world to
the existence of antidemocratic Islamist movements. Why should
democratization move forward when the main beneficiaries would allow
for “one person, one vote, one time”? Jillian Schwedler in
Faith in Moderation refutes this common
argument head-on. Schwedler, however, is not merely content in
presenting two Islamist parties as “moderate” to show how Islam is
not monolithic. She has a more analytical project in which she urges
us to unpack many of our assumptions about regime transitions in the
Middle East and in general. Her argument targets the linkage between
the inclusion of Islamist opposition groups in politics and the
effects of their participation in moderating their ideology and
behavior. Her treatment of this topic, based in social movement
theory, deserves our attention.