Good Muslim, bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the roots of terror

When the event we know as Nine Eleven happened, I was in New York City. As the weeks rolled by, and I read the American Press to try and make sense of the kind of debate that was developing, I was struck by reports that more and more Americans were going to bookshops to buy copies of the Koran—to understand the motivation of those who highjacked the planes, and drove them into the Twin Towers. Soon the New York Times was telling us that the Koran was amongst one of the highest-selling books in American bookshops.... As the weeks rolled by there was the American invasion of Afghanistan, and then of Iraq. I wondered how many Afghanis and Iraqis were going to bookshops to buy copies of the Bible, to gain an…