The Warning Label: a Disclaimer

My intention on this site is to report what I saw and heard in the three countries that I visited in the Middle East in 2003. I am not an expert in Islam or in Middle Eastern politics. I do hold some opinions but, I hope, am not married to them. I have tried, on this site, to report only what I saw and heard. When I interject my own opinions, I hope that I have made that clear.

It is, of course, impossible to be entirely objective in any form of reportage. I have tried to stay out of the way of my own narrative. I have refrained from commenting on opinions even when they differ wildly from my own. For instance, when faculty members of Al-Azhar University justify the "martyrs" in Palestine, I have interjected no comment even though I find that view to be repugnant and, according to many Imams, counter to the Koran.