Until The June 1967 War I Was

In The Islamic World, The U.s. Is Seen In Two Quite Different Ways. One View Recognizes What An Extraordinary Country The U.s. Is.

I Take Criticism So Seriously As To Believe That, Even In The Midst Of A Battle In Which One Is Unmistakably On One Side Against Another, There Should Be Criticism, Because There Must Be Critical Consciousness If There Are To Be Issues, Problems, Values, Even Lives To Be Fought For... Criticism Must Think Of Itself As Life-enhancing And Constitutively Opposed To Every Form Of Tyranny, Domination, And Abuse; Its Social Goals Are Noncoercive Knowledge Produced In The Interests Of Human Freedom.

Since The 1960s, We Have Seen The Failure Of The Melting Pot Ideology. This Ideology Suggested That Different Historical, Cultural And Socioeconomic Backgrounds Could Be Subordinated To A Larger Ideology Or Social Amalgam Which Is "america." This Concept Obviously Did Not Work, Because Paradoxically America Encourages A Politics Of Contestation.

Speaking As A New Yorker, I Found It A Shocking And Terrifying Event [9/11], Particularly The Scale Of It. At Bottom, It Was An Implacable Desire To Do Harm To Innocent People. It Was Aimed At Symbols: The World Trade Center, The Heart Of American Capitalism, And The Pentagon, The Headquarters Of The American Military Establishment.

I Am For Peace. And I Am For A Negotiated Peace. But This Accord Is Not A Just Peace.