> Wall Street Journal - September 29, 2003
>
> Orientalism
> By IBN WARRAQ
>
> In "Terror and Liberalism," Paul Berman traces the absorption of
> Marxist justifications of rage by Arab intellectuals and shows how it
> became a powerful philosophical predicate for Islamist terrorism. Mr.
> Said was the most influential exponent of this trend. He and his
> followers also had the effect of cowing many liberal academics in the
> West into a politically correct silence about Islamic fundamentalist
> violence two decades prior to 9/11. Mr. Said's rock-star status among
> the left-wing literary elite put writers on the Middle East and Islam
> in constant jeopardy of being labeled "Orientalist" oppressors -- a
> potent form of intellectual censorship.
You know, after reading this, I can see a _lot_ of _good reasons_ to join Al-Qaeda.
> Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym used to protect himself and his family from Islamists) is the author of "Why I am Not a Muslim" and the editor of "Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out," published by Prometheus Books in 1995 and 2003 respectively.
Fucking coward. Salman Rushdie lived under a _real_ death sentence, and _he_ never hid his name. (Anyone else thinking of Oliver North's rationale for his home security system?)