This [9/11 Event] Was Bloody-minded Destruction For

If You Look At The Curricula Of Most Universities And Schools In This Country [usa], Considering Our Long Encounter With The Islamic World, There Is Very Little There That You Can Get Hold Of That Is Really Informative About Islam. If You Look At The Popular Media, You'll See That The Stereotype That Begins With Rudolph Valentino In The Sheik Has Really Remained And Developed Into The Transnational Villain Of Television And Film And Culture In General.

In Short, Israel Is The Measure Of Our Failings And Our Incompetence. We Have Waited For A Great Leader For Years, But None Came; We Have Waited For A Mighty Military Victory, But We Were Defeated Roundly; We Have Waited For Outside Powers (the United States Or, In Its Time, The Soviet Union), But None Came To Our Aid. The One Thing We Have Not Tried In All Seriousness Has Been To Rely On Ourselves: Until We Do That With A Full Commitment To Success There Is No Chance That We Can Advance Towards Self-determination And Freedom From Aggression.

The Orient That Appears In Orientalism, Then, Is A System Of Representations Framed By A Whole Set Of Forces That Brought The Orient Into Western Learning, Western Consciousness, And Later, Western Empire.... The Orient Is The Stage On Which The Whole East Is Confined. On This Stage Will Appear The Figures Whose Role It Is To Represent The Larger Whole From Which They Emenate. The Orient Then Seems To Be, Not An Unlimited Extension Beyond The Familiar European World, But Rather A Closed Field, A Theatrical Stage Affixed To Europe.

The Just Response To This Terrible Event Should Be To Go Immediately To The World Community, The United Nations. The Rule Of International Law Should Be Marshaled, But It's Probably Too Late Because The United States Has Never Done That; It's Always Gone It Alone.

We Are At A Point In Our Work When We Can No Longer Ignore Empires And The Imperial Context In Our Studies. (p. 5)