A historian's question to the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza (the original source), Free Republic, Rush Limbaugh, TNR's Barron Youngsmith, and Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds: when was the Reverend Jeremiah Wright a Muslim? And, if you can't identify a time when he was, why would you describe him as"a former Muslim"? Given the Constitution's insistence that there shall be no religious test for office, finding a false former life for Barack Obama's former pastor is cheap pandering to prejudice.

Jill Lepore,"Prior Convictions," New Yorker, 14 April, reviews Martha Nussbaum's Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality and Garry Wills's Head and Heart: American Christianities.

Janet Maslin,"What Emancipation Didn't Stop After All," NYT, 10 April, reviews Douglas A. Blackmon's Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II. The book's introduction and extraordinary photographs are at the book's website.

The NYRB, 17 April, has reviews of two new volumes in the Library of America: Colm Tóibín,"A Great American Visionary," reviews Hart Crane: Complete Poems and Selected Letters; and Robert Gottlieb,"The Rescue of John Steinbeck," reviews Travels with Charley and Later Novels, 1947–1962: The Wayward Bus / Burning Bright / Sweet Thursday / The Winter of Our Discontent / Travels with Charley in Search of America.

Scott Jaschik interviews NYU's Thomas Bender about the new documentary volume he's co-edited with UC, Davis's Wilson Smith: American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005.

Michael Kinsley,"Mine Is Longer Than Yours," New Yorker, 7 April, confronts our mortality.

Manan Ahmed - 4/10/2008

Muslim is a blood-borne infectious disease that is caused by Islam virus (I.V). infecting all majore organs.

The diagnosis of "Muslim" is rarely made during the acute phase of the disease because the majority of people infected experience no symptoms during this phase of the disease.

Those who do experience acute phase symptoms are rarely ill enough to seek medical attention. The diagnosis of chronic phase "Muslim" is also challenging due to the absence or lack of specificity of symptoms until advanced facial hair develops, which may not occur until decades into the disease.

Chronic Muslim may be suspected on the basis of the social or cultural history (particularly if there is any history of having met another carrier), a history of being Black, unexplained symptoms such as criticizing America, or abnormal thought patterns found during routine conversation. Occasionally, Muslim is diagnosed as a result of targeted screening such as known associates or familial histories of popular figures.