My refrain. The idea that the nation-state has failed utterly in much of the Muslim world now gets more attention than ever. That is because, frankly, it is so self-evident. Of course, there are still some recalcitrants who think that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Pakistan, Sudan (!), and God only knows how many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are instances of the model. Read David Brooks' column, "After The Fall," in the Sunday New York Times Week in Review. It is another argument for why they are not and will not be any time soon. My guess is that they will never be nation-states. OK, not never. But not in a century or two, and maybe even three. Which means, come to think of it, not never, ever. Once the world grasps this reality, the whole ideological edifice of the United Nations crumbles. Its constituents are not unified. And the most war-like of its constituents makes war on its own indigenous populations. Now, Nicholas D. Kristof seems to understand that this is the case for Muslim states in the Arab orbit. And that the ferocious bloodshed in them that we read about every day is the result. But Kristof has hopes. They are embedded in his Sunday Times column, "The Muslim Stereotype." So what are instances of the non-stereotype? Not certainly the desert Arabs. But the "maritime Muslims" who "have the edge." Who are these maritime Muslims? For one, they are the inhabitants of the Sultanate of Brunei, governed for six centuries by the same royals. He devotes four full paragraphs to Brunei. (Is that state as fabulous as Tom Friedman thinks Dubai to be?) Is Brunei an instance of anything but Brunei? For God's sake, it has a population of barely 380,000 and one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Desperate to bolster his idea of non-stereotypical Islam, Kristof dips into history. Haphazardly, as it happens, and also incorrectly. "These days, ferocious anti-Semitism thrives in some Muslim countries, but in the Dreyfus affair a century ago Muslims sided with a Jew persecuted by anti-Semitic Christians." Mr. Kristof, where did your research assistant dig up this nonsense?