"In general, people know very little about the foundation of the U.S.-Arab relationship, which leads to warped perceptions of current circumstances. In fact, this history is not just a history of hatred and confrontation; it did not begin on 9/11. It also is a history of collaboration, admiration and respect. I think it shows that the U.S. and Arab worlds are not destined to be locked in mortal enmity."  –Ussama Makdisi, Rice University, 2009

The Arab World, which consists of 22 Arabic-speaking countries stretching from North Africa to Western Asia, has a combined population of more than 350 million people. When President Obama delivered his June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo about a commitment to reform United States relations with these countries, it reignited a sense of hope to the people of the area. But a year later, a 22-nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey released this month shows that largely Muslim countries continue to hold a negative view of the U.S., and in Egypt the favorability rating of the U.S. has dropped to 17 percent, a five-year low. With no progress made in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and continued conflict in the region, have there been any major changes in U.S. foreign policy with Arab states? In his newly-released book Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations, Ussama Makdisi tells a historical tale brimming with contemporary relevance. He revisits the 19th and 20th centuries to explain how past, and not just current, events have shaped U.S.-Arab perceptions.

In Faith Misplaced, Ussama Makdisi draws on both American and Arab sources and brings to the forefront a wide range of previously marginalized Arab perspectives on their multifaceted cultural and political encounters with America. By unearthing this history, Makdisi seeks to put current politics and Arab attitudes toward the United States in a crucial historical perspective. He demonstrates how an initial zealous American missionary crusade was transformed during the nineteenth-century into a leading American educational presence in the Arab world, and how later U.S. policy decisions fueled anti-Americanism.

Ussama Makdisi is the Arab American Educational Foundation Professor of History at Rice University. In April 2009, the Carnegie Corporation named Makdisi a 2009 Carnegie Scholar for his contributions to enriching the country's discourse on Islam. His previous book, Artillery of Heaven, won the 2009 John Hope Franklin Prize.