While many Islamic countries pay lip service to the idea of freedom of religion, they don't put up with conversion from Islam to another religion.

Abolitionism did not find positive response in Africa as it did in Western societies and cultures.

Western society is a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives; it is a society of boundless private charity; it is a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth.

As Luxenberg's work has only recently been published we must await its scholarly assessment before we can pass any judgements. But if his analysis is correct then suicide bombers, or rather prospective martyrs, would do well to abandon their culture of death, and instead concentrate on getting laid 72 times in this world, unless of course they would really prefer chilled or white raisins, according to their taste, in the next.

Not only is the West so successful economically, but it leads the world scientifically, and culturally.

Surprisingly one of the forces for secularisation was Christianity itself. As soon as it accepted the idea of a contrary opinion, the moment that European opinion decided for toleration, it decided for eventual free marketing opinion.

Slavery had very little to do with the economic success of the West. Just look at the facts and figures and how much slavery actually contributed to development.