The United States has worse income inequality than Nigeria.

We often forget that Spain controlled big parts of Europe, in Italy and the Netherlands. In the Middle Ages, Spain and Portugal were so powerful that they signed a set of treaties literally dividing up the globe between them.

Religious distinctions are deeply important for many of the problems in today's Middle East, particularly between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Syria and Iraq.

Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to.

The Mongol conquests are difficult to fathom. Although their most important technology was the horse, they conquered much of the known world from China to Europe, a series of wars that killed tens of millions of people, then a substantial chunk of the world's population.

It's no secret that Europeans and Americans win most Nobel prizes.

Here is what Muslims and Muslim organizations are expected to say: "As a Muslim, I condemn this attack and terrorism in any form." This expectation we place on Muslims, to be absolutely clear, is Islamophobic and bigoted.