An arc of instability and conflict has seared the Islamic world, turning once peaceful communities into hotbeds of violence and bloodshed. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the globe, where the ideological and ethnic conflicts of the twentieth century have given way to a period of relative stability and growth, as the increase in human productivity, that began in the eighteenth century in the west, has moved out to other regions of the world. However, this wave of economic development appears to have missed the Islamic world, where many governments preside over corrupt and stagnating...