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Fouad Moughrabi's review of 'Cruelty and Silence' is based on personal attacks and baseless accusations. He has apparently misunderstood the thesis of the book, which focuses more on the silence of secular nationalist intellectuals who acquiesced in the gross cruelties that have been going on inside Iraq and other parts of the Arab world for a quarter of a century. It is also about matters that have caused a rift between Palestinians and anti-Ba'th Iraqis since Saddam Hussein entered Kuwait.

The article comments on the U.S.-led Iraq War and the prospects for politics and government in Iraq in the future. It is expected that the coming years will show whether the intervention of the U.S. in Iraq will bring the Arab world its first modern constitutional democracy or instigate a protracted civil war and disintegration in Iraq.

Discusses reasons why most Arabs and some Muslims have not yet come to terms with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Argument that the attacks were an outgrowth of the problems of the modern Middle East; Speculation on what motivated the terrorists to act as they did; Reasons why Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, hates the U.S. as much as he does.

Addresses questions regarding Islam's migration toward tolerance in the face of the West's parallel move toward pluralism. Possible alternatives; Articles by Kanan Makiya; Tahar Ben Jalloun; Fourazi Charfi and Tariq Banuri.