Thanks, Prabhu, for the history lesson. Perhaps my  
brief comment was not clear. Please look again at the  
first two paragraphs. I am not an historian but I am  
pretty certain that:  
  
(1) There was a substantial time gap between the  
beginnning of Christianity and the beginning of Islam.  
  
(2) Unlike the leaders of Christianity, the leaders of  
Islam attempted to promote their religion and their  
might in a world where the leaders of another very  
strong religion had already been successful in doing  
this.  
  
It seems to me that using history to judge whether   
historical Christianity or historical Islam is more  
compatible with capitalism may be a fruitless and  
frustrating exercise. More to the point, I think that   
to interpret the _facts_ that have been presented on  
this list so far, much more _theory_ is required.  
  
Finally, it seems to me that this is at least part of  
the message that Jones tried to give about Stark's  
book. His first comment was that Stark aimed to  
present a mono-causal explanation of the rise of the  
west. He also writes in effect that Jones "does not  
show that religion as a whole is the prime source of  
economic advantage."  
  
Pat Gunning