Deep Thought

American Islam – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s what I know. These three men, all converts, appeal to young American Muslims. They appeal, in large part, because they were born and raised in this country and have a vision for Islam that is unmistakably American. Though they’ve all spent time studying in Muslim-majority countries—Imam Zaid and Sheik Hamza were away for years—their focus remains on building a Muslim community that looks and feels, in every way possible, American.

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…

and then arrests the people they supported. This piece in the WaPo offers some insight as to what happened with case of the Miami Moors (also the Seas of David). I know this hasn’t gone to trial, so I can’t say whether it was entrapment or not. These guys were apparently up to no good, but a bunch of hoodlums don’t make a terrorist cell. It’s just following a pattern of behavior from this administration that seems to take the threat of terrorism as a tool to increase control over the population. It makes us less as people (like our…