GREAT article, if more than a bit long. (Posted/copied w permission? Excerpt appropriate?)
To address one point: “Still, it’s fair to wonder why, if that’s true, the West ended up with the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific Revolution and the Islamic world got chronic underdevelopment, a pervasive religious obscurantism, Al Qaeda and the trust fund states of the Arabian peninsula?”
GW Bush’s fault, obviously. /sarc
Seriously, the leftist excuse is that the West succeeded by plundering and subjugating the islamic nations. Completely wrong, but there it is.
Oh, wait, I see you ARE the author. Well done.