As human rights and democratic revolutions sweep across the Arab world, four new CSLR books offer important lessons about the role of religion in establishing and stabilizing democratic rule, particularly during the violent upheavals of the last 30 years.

¿Providential¿ describes the work of Emory University law professor Abdullahai Ahmed An-Na`im these days more than ever before. The main messages of his copious scholarship -- that democracy cannot exist within an Islamic state and that a secular state is not hostile to religious freedom ¿ are the answers that reformers in Africa and the Middle East are desperately seeking as the revolutionary spirit sweeps the Arab world.

CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. will deliver the prestigious Jefferson Memorial Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, April 21.