It is Paul Berman. Most of you probably are aware of him, but although I've read some of his articles and enjoyed them, his rather undistinctive name never rose above my level of awareness.

But I just read his new article "Who's afraid of Tariq Ramadan?" and it is a blockbuster IMO. Magisterial. One surprise and twist after another. What an absolute pleasure. [Unfortunately it is New Republic June 4 issue, you won't find it free on-line.] Here is a very small taste:

"If there is an intellectual establishment, and I suppose there is, the attacks on Hirsi Ali radiate from its center. ....--this does represent something new. Here is the new development among journalists and intellectuals, the development that Ramadan's career has served to illuminate. Something like a campaign against Hirsi Ali could never have taken place a few years ago. A sustained attack on an authentic liberal dissident crying out against injustices in remote parts of the world and even in the back streets of Western Europe, a sustained attack that appears nearly to have erased the very mention of women's oppression and the struggle for women's rights from discussion--no, this could not have happened yesterday, except on the extreme right. This is a new event. This is a reactionary turn in the intellectual world."