-including the some 40 nations in which Muslims constitute the majority of the population-is a rich assort- ment of peoples and cultures. It is united, in tact, only by the prevalence of poverty. Beyond the borders of the desert oil king- doms, Muslim societies are poor and devel- oping, confined by their lack of political, economic, and military resources. They face the ample, simultaneous difficulties of modernization: sprawling, densely popu-

'
 
lated cities immobilized by traffic; u...