Saturday, November 01, 2014

Interesting book by Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd

Just finished first reading Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd book on "A convergence of civilizations: The transformation of Muslim societies around the world".
 From one of the reviews "—make an important point. Birth rates in many Muslim-majority societies are indeed higher than in many Western countries, but they are not static and the authors suggest a significant convergence is in the making. ..... the other significant theme of the book is the role played by religion in bringing about either high or low birth rates. Here too their conclusion is clear: “emphasis on Islam as a causative factor is primarily a symptom of intellectual myopia.Literacy, patrilinealism, reactions of minority groups, and oil wealth all reduce the idea of Muslim demographic specificity to the level of a residual variable”"
Other reviews here and here.

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