David P. Goldman is Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It’s Not the End of the World – It’s Just the End of You, also appeared that fall, from Van Praag Press.
One of the most stirring moments in Western cinema is the lighting of the beacons in Peter Jackson’s film version of The Return of the King, summoning the riders of Rohan to the aid of the beleaguered city of Minas Tirith. The…