The Arab Spring has heightened the ideological tension between Ankara and Tehran, and Turkey's model seems to be winning.

There are strengths in Islamic tradition. Islam actually, as a monotheistic religion, which defined man as a responsible agent by itself, created the idea of the individual in the Middle East and saved it from the communitarianism, the collectivism of the tribe.

There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy or rolling it back.

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.

When I made my first trip to Israel as a member of Congress, not only did I meet with the Israeli president and prime minister, but I also traveled to Ramallah to meet with the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. That's what being a member of Congress is about.

Many people suggest using mathematics to talk to the aliens, and Dutch computer scientist Alexander Ollongren has developed an entire language (Lincos) based on this idea. But my personal opinion is that mathematics may be a hard way to describe ideas like love or democracy.

Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions.