The Islamic World and South Asia
As one of the foremost commentators on the Islamic world and South Asia, Christopher’s expertise developed over 12 intense years living in the region as a correspondent for the Economist and numerous other media outlets.
‘An eye-opening, well-written and very timely book, which can help us understand better the complex relationship between the Muslim world and modernity. While both Islamic extremists and Western bigots find it convenient to stress the incompatibility of Islam and modernity, Christopher de Bellaigue shows that Islam is whatever Muslims make of it, and that at least some Muslims have made of it something very modern.’
Historian Yuval Noah Harari on The Islamic Enlightenment, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford and Orwell prizes.
In Afghanistan
“The buzzword in the new Kabul is reconstruction but the reality is a beleaguered mafiocracy protected by foreigners. It is the ‘ring of steel’ – a girdle of checkpoints and concrete slabs for keeping suicide bombers at bay – and a speculative property boom driven by illegal land-grabs sanctioned by the government. It is the stench of roadside water channels, which, long into the second most costly military occupation in history, are stuck fast with sewage.”
From Christopher’s reporting on the invasion of Afghanistan, in the London Review of Books.
“A lovely writer, thorough reporter and deep thinker”
The Los Angeles Times
Christopher lecturing in Tehran in Persian on the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.