They represent acts of faith in the recreation of political community in the Arab world, not prostration before perverted dogma.

BBC: A Point of View: Past, present and future

The first part of the book is a mixture of psychology and trendy neuroscience research that presents the evidence for Mr Shermer's central claim: that, instead of shaping belief around painstakingly gathered, soberly judged evidence, people most often decide upon their beliefs first, and then use an impressive range of cognitive tricks to bend whatever evidence they do discover into support for those pre-decided acts of faith.

ECONOMIST: A medley of aliens and conspiracy theories

To be sure, not all Malays, perhaps not even a majority of the sharia-minded, approve of the acts of boorishness committed in the name of their faith.

FORBES: Canings, cows' heads and ethnoreligious apartheid.

Rather, says Tiomkin, the power of gold is that it acts as a hedge when people lose faith in their public institutions.

FORBES: What Gold Bugs Are Thinking