This volume aims at confronting the image of the Middle East as a region that is fraught with totalitarian ideologies, authoritarianism and conflict. It gives voice and space to other, more liberal and adaptive narratives and discourses that endorse the right to dissent, question the status quo, and offer alternative visions for society.

Wael Abu-'Uksa, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel Lutz Berger, Kiel University, Germany Michaelle Browers, Wake Forest University, USA Asher Cohen, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Meir Hatina, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Sune Haugbølle, Roskilde University, Denmark Moshe Hellinger, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Roel Meijer, Radboud University, Netherlands Thomas Philipp, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Clemens Recker, Heidelberg University, Germany Mathias Rohe, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Christoph Schumann, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Manfred Sing, Leibniz Institute for European History, Germany Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark