Dr. Wedeen is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. This essay has benefited from discussions with Nadia Abu El-Haj, Saba Mahmood, Jar Allah Umar, Moishe Postone, Don Reneau and Anna Wuerth. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the United Nations, the University of Maine, Bangor and to Chicago alumnae. This essay is dedicated to the memory of Jar Allah Umar and to Muhammad Qahtan.