Graham Fuller, the CIA’s former head of long-term strategic planning, writes the cover story of this month’s issue of Foreign Policy magazine, entitled: “A World without Islam.“

He posits that even without Islam as a factor, the world would still be left with the major conflicts it faces today.

Read why in the full article (FP only has a free extract) at this foreign policy blog.

In other readings, The Atlantic, following the lead of the NYT, is now offering its archived material for free. Here’s a historical gem from 1887: extracts from the diary and letters of a young American woman living in Allahabad, India on Kipling and others. [HT: Sepoy]

Shabana Mir writes “How Not to Rescue a Muslim Woman” at Religious Dispatches.

Her partner Svend takes on another topic at the site: “MLK’s ‘Dream’: Unrealized and Undigested.” He also notes that the excellent South Asian magazine Himal if offering the past two decades of its archives for free.

In the wake of an American aid worker’s kidnapping in Afghanistan, a BBC correspondent reflects on her experiences reporting from Muslim countries in “Hospitality in a Suspicious World.”

And Sheikhy Notes posts video lectures by Dr. Sulayman Nyang on “Islam in Spain” (1, 2) and “Islam in America: Columbus to Slavery.”