“Islam Will Not Be the Loser”

"'Of course this (attack on World Trade Center) is 'about Islam.' The question is, what exactly does that mean? For a vast number of 'believing' Muslim men, 'Islam' stands, in a jumbled, half-examined way, not only for the fear of God, but also for a cluster of customs, opinions and prejudices that include ... a more particularized loathing and fear of the prospect that their own immediate surroundings could be taken over — 'Westoxicated' — by the liberal Western-style way of life.... The restoration of religion to the sphere of the personal, its depoliticization, is the nettle that all Muslim societies must grasp in order to become modern. If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based, and without which Muslim countries' freedom will remain a distant dream.'" - Salman Rushdie, The New York Times.