Exchange, 1993, November, 08.

The article presents information on the book "Cruelty and Silence," by Eqbal Ahmad. The are the worst of times in Middle Eastern history he concedes and never before has the region experienced such moral bankruptcy. "Cruelty and Silence," was written to illustrate this bankruptcy. The book was written by an Arab who grew up in the Middle East and who identifies with it. Whatever the historical and political origins of the contemporary malaise of the Arab world, and however pernicious anti-Arab sentiments inside the West may still remain, nothing is more urgent for a new generation of Arabs than to learn how to acknowledge the truth about the state of their world, and to take responsibility for changing it.