I Am Grateful To My Father For

We Had A World Dominated By The Soviet Union On The One Hand, And The Americans On The Other Hand. They Called It The Cold War. But It Wasn't Cold. I Am Someone Who Comes From The Third World. In The Third World, The Cold War Wasn't Cold. Millions Had Been Killed. It Was A Proxy War.

Infuriatingly Stupid Analysts - Especially People Who Called Themselves Arabists, Yet Who Seemed To Know Next To Nothing About The Reality Of The Islamic World - Wrote Reams Of Commentary [after 9/11]. Their Articles Were All About Islam Saving Aristotle And The Zero, Which Medieval Muslim Scholars Had Done More Than Eight Hundred Years Ago; About Islam Being A Religion Of Peace And Tolerance, Not The Slightest Bit Violent. These Were Fairy Tales, Nothing To Do With The Real World I Knew.

Islam Was Like A Mental Cage. At First, When You Open The Door, The Caged Bird Stays Inside: It Is Frightened. It Has Internalized Its Imprisonment. It Takes Time For Bird To Escape, Even After Someone Has Opened The Doors To Its Cage.

There Are Some Mosques With Facilities For Women; It's Usually A Back Room With A Back-door Entrance.

What I Find Daunting Always Is To Stand On A Stage And Talk To People, Whether They Agree With Me Or Not.