On that Infamous New Yorker Cover

Islam and the Lagging Economies of the Arab World : The New Yorker. But, before consigning a fifth of humanity to the dustbin of economic history, one might consider, more broadly, whether it makes sense to place such an emphasis on religion in explaining the underdevelopment of so many Muslim countries. To start with, it’s worth noting—and Kuran and Lewis, to their credit, do note it—that Islam, at least in its original formulation, was far from hostile to business. As the centuries passed, many Muslim regions fell badly behind the West, but the most immediate explanation involves not Islam but…

Muslim Baiting: Peter King’s Dangerous Obsession. Agrees Hussein Rashid, a professor at Hofstra who blogs at HusseinRashid.com: “Most domestic terror does not come from the Muslim community. The equivalent would have made all Irish Catholics suspects in ’80s, Jews in Communist era, blacks in rise of the Black Panthers, or that all Italians would be responsible for the mob. It is unacceptable.  “It shows that King is unaware of his constituency in New York. It shows a real lack of engagement with those constituencies and shows a real lack of awareness of what being in charge of Homeland Security actually…