It Is Always An Eerie Experience To

A Businessman Admits That He 'let Go' An Employee Because He Was A Sunni Muslim. You Simply Have To Look After Yourself, He Explains. I Am Shocked, Like A Good Westerner Should Be.

Saudi Arabia Is The Most Fragile Of All Arab States, Though We're Not Saying So. And, Unfortunately, Bin Laden Puts His Finger On The Other Longstanding Injustices In The Arab World: The Continued Occupation Of Palestinian Land By The Israelis; The Enormous, Constant Arab Anger With The Tens Of Thousands Of Iraqi Children Who Are Dying Under Sanctions; The Feelings Of Humiliation Of Millions Of Arabs Living Under Petty Dictators, Almost All Of Whom Are Propped Up By The West.

When I Arrived In Beirut From Europe, I Felt The Oppressive, Damp Heat, Saw The Unkempt Palm Trees And Smelt The Arabic Coffee, The Fruit Stalls And The Over-spiced Meat. It Was The Beginning Of The Orient. And When I Flew Back To Beirut From Iran, I Could Pick Up The British Papers, Ask For A Gin And Tonic At Any Bar, Choose A French, Italian, Or German Restaurant For Dinner. It Was The Beginning Of The West. All Things To All People, The Lebanese Rarely Questioned Their Own Identity.

Fundamentalism Is Not Bred In Poverty. There Are Plenty Of Poor Countries In The World That Don't Have Violence Because Amid The Poverty There Is A Kind Of Justice And In Some Countries A Democracy.

When You Have A Crime Against Humanity That Is So Awesome In Scale And Death, It Is More Than Permissible To Look Around And Say, Who Recently Has Been Declaring War On The United States? Of Course, The Compass Points Straight To Bin Laden.