Writing a book on competition law and policy in the Middle East was, many years ago, merely an idea, which later became a dream and eventually turned into a reality. The transition from idea to reality in this case was only possible because of my own personal background and experience. I was born and raised in a small village suffering from illiteracy and swamped with poverty, in an extremely underdeveloped society and in a region where violence, conflict and confrontation were and still are extremely widespread. That region is called the Middle East. What fed many of the thoughts in the book was my experience as a specialist in the field of competition law. Other thoughts, however, could not have materialised without my own background. An example of this is chapter 2. My decision to examine the relationship between Islam and competition law within the context of the present book was not ‘pulled out of a hat’ but was rather the result of an encounter with this (unusual) relationship which happened at the age of eight. Of course at that very young age there was no awareness on my part of this relationship or competition law at all. The timing of the encounter – which occurred during the summer holidays – was highly interesting. During the preceding academic year, I became aware of some of the fundamental values of Islam through my religious studies lessons at primary school.