The epochs of Newt Gingrich’s public life are defined by the books that have revolutionized him – generally of the type that sell well at airports. There is Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy, Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave,” Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and various foundational texts of Total Quality Management and Lean Six Sigma.

These idea crushes are mostly harmless. Sometimes they are not. Gingrich has recently been captured by the theory, developed in books such as Andrew C. McCarthy’s “The Grand Jihad“, that sharia law is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and the world as we know it.

Michael Gerson in the Washington Post, 13 December 2011

See also Eli Clifton, “The dangers of Gingrich’s war against Islam”,Think Progress, 13 December 2011

And “Read this before you support Gingrich (the bigot)”, Craig Considine’s blog, 11 December 2011