I am with terrorism Niza'r Qabbani, London 1997. See the original Arabic version here . Qabbani was a Syrian poet, diplomat and publisher. We are accused of terrorism: if we defended rose and woman and the mighty verse ... and the blueness of sky ... A dominion .. nothing left therein... No water, no air .. No tent, no camel, and not even dark Arabica coffee!! We are accused of terrorism: if we defended with guts the hair of Balqis and the lips of Maysun if we defended Hind, and Da`d Lubna and Rabab .. and the stream of Kohl coming down from their lashes like the verses of revelation. You will not find with me a secret poem or a secret logos or books I put behind doors. I do not even have one poem walking down the street, wearing veil. We are accused of terrorism: if we wrote about the ruins of a homeland torn, weak ... a homeland with no address and an nation with no names I seek the remnants of a homeland none of its grand poems is left except the
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51