I wish Dr. Abd Al-Hamid

I wish Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari the best of luck in bringing a reasoned point of view to the Arab world. Here are a few comments he made about the U.S.'s response to 9.11:

"It is unfair to name the American response [to September 11] 'terrorism,' because by so doing we are confusing the concepts of terrorism and self-defense or response to aggression -- and at a time when we are demanding that the international community not confuse 'terrorism' with 'legitimate resistance.' What happened in America is terrorism; the American response is a response to that aggression, and there is a world-wide consensus on this."

"...[O]nly those with a hatred-of-America complex, whose goal is to permit the perpetrators to escape, [name America's response 'terrorism']. Any other country in which such an act of terror had taken place would have hastened to respond and to annihilate everything -- we have many examples of this in Arab history."

"Yet, although America is a superpower, and could have responded immediately, it gave other options a fair chance, until it despaired -- and then had no choice but to launch a war..."

"We feel sorrow for the innocent victims; we wish it were not a Muslim country that was being attacked. But what can be done with the group of fanatics [the Taliban] who rejected all calls for mediation, all initiatives, and all counsel, and persisted for over five years in protecting a group of terrorists..."

"...Terrorism must be fought by any and all means. All Muslims must support the struggle against terror. Terrorism has claimed more victims in many Islamic countries than in the West. Any country or group protecting and defending terrorists must be fought, and the world must be saved from their evil... The time has come to call them to account, and punish them. We must all support the efforts to repress and bring to an end the damage they do."

"There are always innocent victims of war, and we cannot prevent this? What we can do is demand protection for these innocents. Afghan refugees who escaped Kabul reported that the Taliban were concealing their tanks and heavy guns near the mosques and heavily populated areas. If this is true, who is responsible for the deaths of the victims -- America, or the Taliban...?"

"We must have the courage to admit that what happened in Afghanistan was the liberation of our Muslim brothers -- even if, unfortunately, it was by non-Muslim hands..."