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Quote by Edward Said

“[Roots of terrorism] come out of a long dialectic of U.S. involvement in the affairs of the Islamic world, the oil-producing world, the Arab world, the Middle East - those areas that are considered to be essential to U.S. interests and security.”

Quote by Edward Said

Author

Edward Said was a distinguished American academic, cultural critic, and public intellectual. He served as a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and is widely recognized for his seminal work 'Orientalism', which critically examines the West's depiction of the East. Born on November 1, 1935, in Jerusalem, he passed away on September 24, 2003. more

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“In the Islamic world, the U.S. is seen in two quite different ways. One view recognizes what an extraordinary country the U.S. is.The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions. The United States that in 1953 overthrew the nationalist government of Mossadegh in Iran and brought back the shah. The United States that has been involved first in the Gulf War and then in the tremendously damaging sanctions against Iraqi civilians. The United States that is the supporter of Israel against the Palestinians.”

“If you live in the [Middle East] area, you see [U.S actions] as part of a continuing drive for dominance, and with it a kind of obduracy, a stubborn opposition to the wishes and desires and aspirations of the people there.”

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“It's very hard, for example, to justify the thirty-four-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It's very hard to justify 140 Israeli settlements and roughly 400,000 settlers. These actions were taken with the support and financing of the United States.”

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“Ironically, many of people, including Osama bin Laden and the mujahedeen, were, in fact, nourished by the United States in the early eighties in its efforts to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan.”

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“It was thought that to rally Islam against godless communism would be doing the Soviet Union a very bad turn indeed, and that, in fact, transpired. In 1985, a group of mujahedeen came to Washington and was greeted by President [Ronald] Reagan, who called them "freedom fighters."”

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“[Mujahedeen], by the way, don't represent Islam in any formal sense. They're not imams or sheiks. They are self-appointed warriors for Islam.”

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“Your life can become the background for the art you create.”

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“Right now the way I define beauty is individuality and wisdom, which I think creates a certain inner confidence. And not confidence in a way that's only on the surface, but a deep-down knowing of yourself or settling into who you are.”

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“Life is going to be a constant peeling back of layers, a constant unlearning of what we've been taught or believe to be true. I think that I've come to terms with the fact that that's just going to happen for the whole duration of my life. I feel really good about being able to look myself in the face and say, "Oh, who are you now?" And that might change.”

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“There are certain things we come into this world having to defeat. And for me, and I would not be surprised if a lot of women feel this same way, it's this thing of not being 100 percent comfortable with myself.”

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