The Star, the Cross, and the Crescent examines how Francophone writers from the Maghreb and the Near East represent the intertwining of religion and politics in various disputes, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Lebanese and Algerian civil wars, the affair of the Muslim headscarf in France, and 9/11. It analyzes fiction, films, comic books, autobiographical narratives, and essays from the Arab world against the backdrop of the current international political context of Islamic fundamentalism and Western prejudices against Islam.