How Islamism Took Over the Middle East

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This month at Mosaic, we hosted a very important set of conversations, spurred on by a very important essay: “The Enchantment of the Arab Mind,” by the Egyptian-American writer Hussein Aboubakr Mansour. Mansour traces the roots of jihadism to European, and especially German, philosophy, transmitted through 20th-century Arab radicalism. Earlier this week, we broadcast a conversation about the essay with Hussein and two eminent professors: Bernard Haykel from Princeton University and Ze’ev Maghen from Bar-Ilan University. The discussion was at times contentious in the best, and most illuminating, of ways. For anyone interested in intellectual history and the history of the Middle East, this is one of the most fascinating conversations we’ve ever convened.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This month at Mosaic we hosted a very important set of conversations spurred on by a very
0:13.0	important essay, the enchantment of the Arab mind by the Egyptian-American writer Hussein
0:18.3	Abu Bakr Mansour.
0:20.7	Earlier this week, we broadcast a conversation
0:22.9	about the essay with two eminent professors, Bernard Hegel from Princeton University, and
0:28.5	Zayv Maghain from Bar-Ilan University. The conversation amongst them, Hussein and the professors,
0:34.6	was at times contentious in the best and most illuminating of ways.
0:39.7	That conversation was broadcast as a video production of Mosaic, and I offer a substantive
0:45.0	introduction to the essay there, so I won't repeat myself here.
0:49.4	But for people interested in intellectual history and the history of the Middle East,
0:53.5	this is one of the most
0:54.4	fascinating conversations we've ever convened.
0:57.9	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. This week we're bringing you
1:02.4	a conversation on how Islamism took over the Middle East with Hussein Abbaqar Mansour, Zave Magan,
1:09.1	and Bernard Haeckel. If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google
1:15.7	Play, and Spotify, I hope you leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of ideas.
1:21.9	I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes atfa.org. And of course, if you want to learn
1:29.8	more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website, tikva.org, and follow us on Facebook and
1:35.5	Twitter. Here now is Hussein Abu Bakr Mansour, Zave Magan, and Bernard Haeckel, in a conversation
1:42.2	originally broadcast for the Mosaic Community in July
1:45.9	2025.
1:48.3	In 1987, the University of Chicago professor Alan Bloom published one of the most unlikely
	...

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