For a long time, Western society has been defined as secular and modernization has tended to be equated with secularization. Today, however, these notions are suddenly contested. More than a century after Nietzsche's proclamation of the "death of God," Gilles Kepel speaks alarmingly of "the revenge of God," while Mark Juergensmeyer points to the prospect of a "new cold war" inspired by religious motives—a prospect that is often far from "cold" or speculative.¹ Having emerged not long ago from European domination, Algeria has been plunged into a bloody nightmare pitting against each other religious "fundamentalists' and a 'secular" military and business elite. On a lesser scale, similar feuds are brewing throughout North Africa and the Middle East—incipiently even extending to Turkey, which Kemal Pascha had supposedly made 'safe" for secularism. Taking note of the brewing turmoil, many Western observers are wont to adopt a superior, condescending stance (not far from colonial conceit), blaming the conflicts on cultural and economic backwardness. Though comforting, this stance ignores, however, the emergence of similar troubles in the West, especially the rise of a militant religious "Right" bent on salvaging traditional faith from the inroads of secular democracy. Observers with a somewhat longer memory will recall the deep fissures afflicting many Western societies during the nineteenth century, especially the agonies of the so-called culture struggle (Kulturkampf) dividing these societies along religious versus secular lines.