"...whether it is really grass-roots, or whether the nation has been manipulated successfully in the cuture wars." Well, the manipulators certainly must have had fertile ground to sow. Convincing completely rational people that they need to start teaching religion in science classes at a moment when their nation's technological dominance is being threatened would seem to be a tough sell. Similarly, If you had told most people a few years ago that Americans would be boycotting a children's book because they feared witchcraft, well... Whether it's Islam or American Christianity, the fundamentalists have taken hold of the popular agenda. The Arab world, never able to regain it's past glory retreats to the past of Sharia and America, seemingly disenchanted with scientific and intellectual progress seeks to return to a world of Biblical literalism. To the rest of the world I can only say, be afraid, be very afraid.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken