Fatal Contact: The Western influence on Islamic radicals.

The more we learn about the men who destroyed the World Trade Center, the more mysterious they seem. That mystery does not, however, reside in their foreignness. Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and various Muslim clerics with walk-on parts, hectoring crowds in Pakistan, look exotic enough in their long beards and flowing robes. If we ran into such figures in our travels, we would not be surprised to discover that they had very different religious and political beliefs from our own; we would, indeed, expect it, and make every effort to understand their exact meaning and to avoid giving unintended cultural offense. We might even think these men more foreign, in the sense of ...